SHRIMATI GITADEVI KANDOI SEVA NIDHI ,KOLKATA vs. ITO, EXEMPTION, WARD - 1(3) , KOLKATA

The assessee is a charitable Trust registered u/s 12A of the Act. It filed its return of income u/s 139 of the Act on 27.02.2016 declaring total income of ₹7,45,694/-. It claimed deduction u/s 11 & 12 of the Act. It also claimed exemption u/s 11(1)(d) of the Act on the ground that corpus donations are not income as they have been made with specific direction.

The Central Processing Centre, while processing return of the assessee u/s 143(1) of the Act, disallowed the claim of the assessee for deduction of corpus donations on the ground that, audit report in Form 10B was not filed along with the return of income. The assessee filed rectification petition u/s 154 of the Act and had enclosed audit report in Form 10B. The AO rejected the same on the ground that, the audit report was not attached with the return of income. On appeal the ld. CIT(A) confirmed the order of the AO.

Aggrieved, the assessee is in appeal before us.

We have heard Ms. Shikha Agarwal, ld. Counsel for the assessee and Sh. Supriyo Pal, Sr. DR on behalf of the Revenue. As submitted by Ms. Shikha Agarwal, the CBDT had vide Circular No. 10[F.NO.197/55/2018-ITA-I] Section 12A, read with Section 119 of The Income-Tax Act, 1961 – Charitable or Religious Trust – Registration of – condonation of delay in filing of Form No. 10b for years prior to Assessment Year 2018- 19 had directed the Income Tax Authorities to condone the delay in filing of Form No. 10B of the Act.

In view of the Circular, the delay in filing of Form no. 10B for the AY 2016-17 should have been condoned by the AO or by the ld. CIT(A) and the benefit should have been granted to the assessee. In view of the above, we condone the delay in filing Form No. 10B and we allow this appeal of the assessee and delete the addition made of corpus donations.

In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed. Kolkata, the 22nd January, 2020.