Facts
The Revenue appealed against the CIT(A)'s order which partly deleted an addition of ₹3,61,11,660/- made on account of alleged bogus purchases of ₹4,12,70,471/-. The Assessing Officer had disallowed the entire expenditure on provisions for sub-contractors for two projects, treating it as unexplained expenditure under Section 69C.
Held
The Tribunal held that the addition of the entire purchase amount was unreasonable as the assessee had claimed sales and the department had not disputed them. Following judicial precedents, the Tribunal restricted the addition to the extent of the gross profit rate (12.5%) on the disputed purchases, thereby deleting the remaining amount.
Key Issues
Whether the entire disallowance of provisions for sub-contractors as unexplained expenditure is justified when sales are accepted and purchases cannot be rejected without disturbing sales?
Sections Cited
147, 143(3), 69C, 133(6), 142(1), 263
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, “B” BENCH, KOLKATA
This is an appeal preferred by the Revenue against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax, Appeal (hereinafter referred to as the “Ld. CIT (A)”] dated 26.08.2024 for the AY 2011-12.
The appeal of the Revenue is time barred by 03 days. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, we find that there is plausible and genuine reasons for the delay and therefore the delay in filing the appeal is hereby condoned.
The only issue raised by the Revenue is against the part deletion to the tune of ₹3,61,11,660/- by the ld. CIT (A) as against the total
The facts in brief are that the assessment u/s 147/ 143(3) of the Act was framed on 21.12.2018, assessing the total income at ₹22,76,130/-. The said assessment order was set aside by the ld. PCIT u/s 263 of the Act directing the ld. AO to examine the issue of allowability of provisions of expenditure of ₹4,12,70,471/- claimed in the profit and loss account under the heads of ‘Provision of sub- contractor’ (Dikchu Project) and Provisions of sub-contractor (Pabong Project). The ld. AO in the set aside proceeding accepted the return income at ₹22,76,130/-passed u/s 263/147/143(3) of the Act dated 30.09.2021. Again, the second time the revisionary jurisdiction was invoked by the ld. PCIT by passing the order u/s 263 of the Act on 14.03.2022, directing the assessing officer to make necessary examination and pass a fresh assessment order on the same issue. The assessee was engaged in the business of Civil Construction on contractual basis and during the year under consideration the assessee company has claimed a sum of ₹1,64,83,461/- under the head of ‘Provisions of sub-contractor (Dikchu Project) and a sum of ₹2,47,87,010/- under the head ‘Provision for sub-contractor (Pabong Project) respectively. According to the ld. PCIT, the assessee has debited in the Profit and Loss account a sum of ₹4,12,70,471/- under the head of ‘Provision of sub-contractors’ which are not admissible. Accordingly, he reached a conclusion that the order passed u/s 263/147/143(3) of the Act dated 30.09.2021 is erroneous and
In the appellate proceedings the ld. CIT (A) partly uphold allowed the appeal of the assessee by observing and holding as under: -
“5.2. Discussion and decision: 5.2.1. I have perused the assessment order as well as the submission of the assessee. On examining the same, it is noticed that during the year under consideration, the assessee-company had claimed a sum of Rs.1,64,83,461/- under the head of 'Provision of sub-contractor [Dikchu Project]' and a sum of Rs.2,47,87,010/- under the head of 'Provision for sub- contractor [Pabong Project]'. However, by observing the fact that as per the provisions of the Act, the claim of deduction on account of any provision is not admissible, the Pr. C.I.T (Central)-2, Kolkata, was of the view that assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer u/s 263/147/143(3) dated 30.09.2021 was erroneous and prejudicial to the interest of Revenue. Later, an order u/s 263 of the Act was passed by Hon'ble Pr. C.I.T (Central)-2, Kolkata on 14.03.2022 with a direction to Assessing Officer to make necessary examination on the issue and pass fresh assessment order after giving reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee. During the fresh assessment proceedings, the assessee was asked to submit the relevant details and documents in respect of the aforesaid sub-contractor expenses of 5.2.2. On perusal of the submission of the assessee, the AO had issued notices u/s 133(6) of the Act to the above parties to verify the authenticity of the above purchase transactions. However, the AO had claimed that in response to the same, none of the above parties had responded to the notice u/s 133(6) of the Act. Whereas, in the case of two parties (in Sl. No. 9 & 10), speed post returned unserved with postal remark 'addressee could not be located" The AO had also contended that the assessee through its AR had only able to submit the relevant bills, however, it had failed to submit transportation details of raw materials, stock details, parties from whom raw material purchased by suppliers and mode of payment etc Hence, the AO had claimed that the identity of those suppliers and genuineness of transactions could not be established and he had made the addition of total unexplained purchase of Rs.4,12,70,471/- u/s 69C of the Act. 5.2.3. Further, in the appellate proceedings also, the assessee had submitted only the copy of the same bills. No other relevant details and documents was produced by the assessee. Hence, observing the effort made by the assessee, comparing the purchases and sales statement of the assessee and observed that the department had accepted the sales, and therefore, there was no reason to reject the purchases, because without purchases there cannot be sales. Hence, I am of the view that under these circumstances AO was not correct in adding the entire amount of purchases of Rs.4,12,70,471/- as the assessee's income. Reliance may be placed on the judgement "8 in the present case, as noted above, the assessee was a trader of fabrics. The A.O. found three entities who were indulging in bogus billing activities. A.O. found that the purchases made by the assessee from these entities were bogus. This being a finding of fact, we have proceeded on such basis. Despite this, the question arises whether the Revenue is correct in contending that the entire purchase amount should be added by way of assessee's additional income or the assessee is correct in contending that such logic cannot be applied. The finding of the CIT(A) and the Tribunal would suggest that the department had not disputed the assessee's sales. There was no discrepancy between the purchases shown by the assessee and the sales declared. That being the position, the Tribunal was correct in coming to the conclusion that the purchases cannot be rejected without disturbing the sales in case of a trader. The Tribunal, therefore, correctly restricted the additions limited to the extent of bringing the G.P. rate on purchases at the same rate of other genuine purchases. The decision of the Gujarat High Court in the case of N.K. Industries Ltd. (supra) cannot be applied without reference to the facts. In fact, in paragraph 8 of the same Judgment the Court held and observed as under- "So far as the question regarding addition of Rs.3,70,78,125/- as gross profit on sales of Rs.37.08 Crores made by the Assessing Officer despite the fact that the said sales had admittedly been recorded in the regular books during Financial Year 1997-98 is concerned, we are of the view that the assessee cannot be punished since sale price is accepted by the revenue. Therefore, even if 6% gross profit is taken into account, the corresponding cost price is required to be deducted and tax cannot be levied on the same price. We have to reduce the selling price accordingly as a result of which profit comes to 5.66%. Therefore, considering 5.66% of Rs.3,70,78,125/- which comes to Rs.20,98,621.88 we think it fit to direct the revenue to add Rs.20,98,621.88 as gross profit and make necessary deductions accordingly. Accordingly, the sald question is answered partially in favour of the assessee and partially in favour of the revenue.
In these circumstances, no question of law, therefore, arises. All Income Tax Appeals are dismissed, accordingly. No order as to costs." 5.2.4. Further, the Hon'ble ITAT, Raipur, in the case of 'Income Tax Officer-1(2) Raipur (C.G) vs. M/s Satyanarayan Nathulal, in dated 31.05.2022' had held the following:
After hearing the rival contentions and perusing the materials available on record, we find that in this case the two round of revisionary proceedings were taken by ld. PCIT. In the first round, the assessment framed u/s 263/147/143(3) of the Act, the AO accepting the returned income as no addition as made in respect of ‘Provisions of sub-contractors’. The ld. PCIT again exercised the revisionary jurisdiction and revised the assessment. In the second round, the ld.AO added the entire amount to the income of the assessee u/s 69C of the Act as unexplained expenditure citing the reasons that the assessee has not proven the identity of the parties and genuineness of the transactions. The ld. AO also noted that the notices u/s 133(6) were not complied with by the suppliers/ parties. We find from the perusal of the appellate order that the ld. CIT (A) has taken a very judicial view of the whole matter by applying the additional GP of .5% to assess the income on the said expenses by holding that the department has not disputed the sales made by the assessee and therefore, there was no justification to reject the purchase because without purchases there could not be any sales and thus treated the addition made by the ld. AO to be unreasonable and not justified. The ld. CIT (A) followed the decision of Hon'ble Bombay High Court in case of PCIT vs. M/s Mohammad Haji Adam & co., in 1013, 1059, 1064, 1095, 1204 & 1012 of 2016 dated 11.02.2019, wherein the Hon'ble High Court has held that the purchases cannot be rejected
In the result, the appeal of the Revenue is dismissed.
Order pronounced in the open court on 22.07.2025.