ASSOCIATION FOR RURASL AWARENESS AND MASS VOLUNTARY ACTION,MAYURBHANJ vs. THE INCOME TAX OFFICER(EXEMPTION), CUTTACK, CUTTACK

1 ITA No.731/CTC/2026 Assessment Year: 2018-19

IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, CUTTACK BENCH, CUTTACK BEFORE S/SHRI GEORGE MATHAN, JUDICIAL MEMBER AND G. GURUSAMY, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER ITA No.731/CTC/2026 Assessment Year: 2018-19 Association for Rural Awareness Vs. Income Tax officer (Exemption), and Mass Voluntary Action, Cuttack At/PO: Udala, Dist: Mayurbhanj PAN/GIR No.AACTA 5623 K (Appellant) .. ( Respondent) Assessee by : Shri P.K.Mishra, Adv Revenue by : Shri Vijaya Singh ld Sr DR Date of Hearing : 06/10/2026 Date of Pronouncement : 06/10/2026

O R D E R Per Bench This is an appeal filed by the assessee against the order of the ld CIT(A), NFAC, Delhi dated 12.3.2026 in Appeal No. NFAC/2017-18/10023603 for the assessment year 2018-19. 2. Shri P.K.Mishra, ld AR appeared for the assessee and Shri Vijaya Singh, ld Sr. DR appeared for the revenue. 3. It was submitted by ld AR that the assessee is a trust, enjoying the benefit of registration u/s.12A of the Act. It was the submission that the assessee when filing the return of income, specified that the amount of income of the previous year applied for charitable or religious purposes was Rs.1,30,13,278/-. It was the submission that, however, in the audit report, in clause (2) in regard to application of income, the

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auditors had by mistake entered the same amount mentioning that the application of income has not been done. On the ground that the auditor had made the mistake in regard to entry that the expenditure has not been done, the Assessing Officer held that Form No.9A had not been filed and, therefore, denied the assessee the benefit of exemption u/s.11 & 12 of the Act. It was the submission that the assessee had provided the details of the person being Plan International, which had given the amount and the details of the expenditure incurred. It was the submission that this was not considered by the AO insofar as Form 9A had not been filed. It was the submission that Form 9A was not required at all insofar as the entire amount has been expended and no amount was left for accumulation. It was the submission that he had no objection if the issues are restored to the file of the Assessing Officer for verification as to whether the amount has been spent or not. It was the submission that if the amount is found to have been spent, there is no requirement of Form 9A as the mistake is committed by the auditor by mentioning the same figure in in col.(2) while filing the return. 4. In reply, ld Sr DR submitted that the assessee has to provide all the details of expenditure, which has been incurred before the AO, 5. We have considered the rival submissions. As it is evident from the order of the ld CIT(A) at page 7, where he has extracted the Annexure of statement of particulars, that the assessee has mentioned that application of income for charitable or religious purchases specified that the entire amount has been spent which admittedly shows in cl. (1) as having been expended. The assessee has categorically admitted that the amount has been expended which has not been controverted by the

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AO insofar as there is no mention of this issue having been considered by the AO, the issues in this appeal are restored to the file of the AO to verify as to whether the amount of Rs.1,33,76,519/- is the expenditure incurred including depreciation. The assessee shall provide the details before the AO in regard to expenditure incurred. If the assessee is able to substantiate its claim of expenditure then the requirement of Form 9A no more survive as the same amount has been taken by the auditor by mistake. With these directions, the issues in this appeal are restored to the file of the AO for readjudication after granting adequate opportunity of hearing to the assessee. 6. In the result, appeal of the assessee stands partly allowed for statistical purposes. Order dictated and pronounced in the open court on 06/10/2026. Sd/- Sd/- (G. GURUSAMY) (GEORGE MATHAN) ACCOUNTANT MEMBER JUDICIAL MEMBER Cuttack ; Dated 06/10/2026 RS Copy of the Order forwarded to : 1. The Appellant: Association for Rural Awareness and Mass Voluntary Action, At/PO: Udala, Dist: Mayurbhanj