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This appeal is filed at the instance of the assessee pertaining to Assessment Year 2014-15 and is directed against the order of Ld. Director of Income Tax(I&CI) (in short ‘DIT(I&CI), Bhopal dated 29.12.2017 framed u/s 271FA r.w.s. 274 of the Income Tax Act 1961(In short the ‘Act’).
2. The assessee has raised following grounds of appeal; Joint Sub Registrar, Ratlam 1.That on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the learned DIT(I&CI) is not justified in levying a penalty of Rs.3,51,500/- under section 271FA.
The Ld. DIT(I&CI) had failed to appreciate the full facts of the cazse, as available before him. As such levied penalty is unwarranted, arbitrary and without providing/rebutting the facts. Thus the penalty so levied requires to be deleted in full.
3. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Ld. DIT(I&C) had erred in not providing proper opportunity of hearings.
Your appellant reserves the rights to add, adduce or alter any of the grounds of appeal, as mentioned.
Briefly stated facts as culled out from the records are that the assessee is local authority under the State Government of Madhya Pradesh in the name of Joint Sub Registrar, Ratlam. As per the provisions of Section 285BA of the Act the assessee is required to submit a statement in Form 61B for every financial year by 31st May of following that year. In financial year 2014-15 the due date of filing of information in prescribed form No.61B was 31.5.2015.
This date was extended by the Income Tax Department to 10.9.2015. The assessee failed to file the Annual Information Return (AIR) as required as per the provisions of Section 285BA.
Show cause notice was issued by the Ld. Director of Income Tax Joint Sub Registrar, Ratlam (I&CI) on 26.11.15 to file necessary information latest by 15.12.2015 but no compliance was received. Again notice was issued on 31.03.2016 u/s 271FA r.w.s. 274 of the Act for levying penalty for non filing of the information. None attended on the date of hearing. Last opportunity was given to appear before 17.11.2017 and the assessee again failed to comply with the notice. Ld. Director of Income Tax (I&CI) accordingly levied the penalty u/s 271FA of the Act @Rs.500/- for the period of delay of 703 days and computed the penalty at Rs.3,51,500/-. Aggrieved assessee is now in appeal before the Tribunal.
At the outset Ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that the issue raised in this appeal is squarely covered by the decision of this Co-ordinate Bench in the case of Sub Registrar Jaora V/s Director Income Tax (I&CI), Bhopal order dated 16.05.2019. He further stated that the facts, figures and circumstances are verbatim similar and therefore prayed that the decision taken in the case of ITA No.108/Ind/2018 order dated 16.05.2019 may be applied on the issue raised in the instant appeal.
Joint Sub Registrar, Ratlam
Ld. Departmental Representative through supported order of the lower authority but could not controvert the contentions made by the Ld. Counsel for the assessee.
We have heard rival contentions and perused the records placed before us. The assessee is in appeal against the levy of penalty of Rs.3,51,500/- u/s 271FA of the Act for non filing of Annual Information Return. We find that similar issue, same facts and figures came up before us in the case of Sub Registrar Jaora V/s Director Income Tax (I&CI), Bhopal (supra) wherein after adjudicating the issue the penalty was sustained at Rs.9,700/- after observing as follows:-
“6. We have heard rival contentions and perused the records placed before us. The assessee is a local authority controlled by State Government of Madhya Pradesh and carries out the work of registration of the documents pertaining to transfer of immoveable properties. The assessee is covered under the list of persons provided u/s 285BA Sub Section (i) of the Act and is under obligation to furnish AIR for the financial transaction or reportable action in Form No.61B. As per provisions of Section 285BA(ii) of the Act assessee was required to furnish statement in Form No.61B for every financial year by 31st May of the following year. The due date for financial year 2014-15 was 31.5.2015 which was subsequently extended to 10.12.2015. The assessee failed to file the information by 10.5.2016. Notices were issued by the revenue authorities Joint Sub Registrar, Ratlam to file the details latest by 15.12.2015 but no compliance was made. Thereafter show cause notice u/s 271FA r.w.s. 274 of the Act was issued on 31.3.2016 for imposing the penalty for the lapse in not filing the Annual Information Report but there was no compliance to these notices. Assessee also failed to appear on dates fixed for hearing on 17.11.2017 and 21.12.2017. For this reason penalty of Rs.3,51,500/- was worked out @ Rs.500/- for the delay of 703 days (from 16.12.2015 to 17.11.2017).
We observe that the amount of penalty is computed as per the provisions of Section 271FA of the Act which provides that before 1.04.2018 penalty of Rs.100/-per day may be charged for number of days delay. Section 273B of the Act provides for not levying penalty in certain cases if the assessee proves that there was a reasonable cause for the failure. This section also refers to the penalty of Section 271FA of the Act. Reference was made to various correspondences with the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, Department of Commercial Taxes and Chief Commissioner of Income Tax as well as Secretary, Finance Department of Revenue which talks about the technical problem due to which non integration of the departments portal with the Income Tax Departmental portal for PAN authentication was not achieved. This problem was solved at later stage and finally assessee filed Annual Information Report for financial year 2014-15 on 14.12.2017. Certainly there was a delay but there was reasonable cause for such delay”.
7. On examining the facts of the instant appeal in the light of the above decision we find that the issue is squarely covered by this decision and Ld. Departmental Representative failed to bring any contrary material. We therefore sustain the penalty of Rs.9,700/- u/s 271FA of the Act and delete the remaining amount of penalty of 5 Joint Sub Registrar, Ratlam Rs,3,41,800/- and partly allow the assessee’s appeal.
Accordingly appeal of the assessee is partly allowed.
The order pronounced in the open Court on 20.06.2019.