DCIT, CENTRAL CIRCLE 2(4), CHENNAI vs. SWAMINATHAN ENTERPRISES P LTD, KANCHEEPURAM

आदेश / O R D E R

PER BENCH:

These 15 appeals are filed by various Assessing Officers, all these

appeals call into question correctness of the relief granted to the

taxpayers by the Commissioners of Income Tax (Appeals) and, most

importantly, the tax effect involved in all these appeals does not exceed

Rs50,00,000/- in each of these appeals.

dated 8th August, 2019, the income tax department has further liberalized

its policy for not filing appeals against the decisions of the appellate

authorities in favour of the taxpayers, wherein tax involved is below

certain threshold limits, and announced its policy decision not to file, or

press, the appeals, before this Tribunal, against the appellate orders

favourable to the assessee in the cases in which overall tax effect,

Tax effect (15) cases below 50 lakhs :- 3 -:

excluding interest except when interest itself is in dispute, is Rs 50,00,000

or less.

CBDT circular, all these appeals must be dismissed as withdrawn and the

related cross objections must be dismissed as infructuous.

relaxation. The old circular, beyond any dispute or controversy,

categorically applied to the pending appeals as on the date of issuance of

circular.

to be read in conjunction with the CBDT circular No. 3/2018 (and

subsequent amendment thereto), and all it does is to replace paragraph

nos. 3 and 5 of the said circular. This is evident from the following

extracts from the circular dated 8thAugust 2019:

“2. As a step towards further management of litigation. it has been decided by the Board that monetary limits for filing of appeals in income-tax cases be enhanced further through amendment in Para 3 of the Circular mentioned above and accordingly, the table for monetary limits specified in Para 3 of the Circular shall read as follows: S.No. Appeals/SLPs in Income-tax Monetary matters Limit (Rs.)

Tax effect (15) cases below 50 lakhs :- 4 -:

1 Before Appellate Tribunal 50,00,000 2 Before High Court 1,00,00,000 3 Before Supreme Court 2,00,00,000

scenarios where separate order is passed by higher appellate

authorities for each assessment year vis-a-vis where composite

order for more than one assessment years is passed. para 5 of the

circular is substituted by the following para:

“5. The Assessing Officer shall calculate the tax effect separately for every assessment year in respect of the disputed issues in the case of everyassessee. If in the case of an assessee, the disputed issues arise in more than one assessment year, appeal can be filed in respect of such assessment year or years in which the tax effect in respect of the disputed issues exceeds the monetary limit specified in para 3. No appeal shall be filed in respect of an assessment year or years in which the tax effect is less than the monetary limit specified in para-3. Further, even in the case of composite order of any High Court or appellate authority which involves more than one assessment year and common issues in more than one assessment year no appeal shall be filed in respect of an assessment year or years in which the tax effect is less than the monetary limit specified in para 3. In case where a composite order/ judgement involves more than one assessee, each assessee shall be dealt with separately” 4. The said modifications shall come into effect from the date of issue of this Circular.”

remained intact. The portion which has remained intact includes

paragraph 13 of the aforesaid circular which is as follows:

“13. This Circular will apply to SLPs/ appeals/ cross objections/ references to be filed henceforth in SC/HCs/Tribunal and it shall also apply retrospectively to pending SLPs/ appeals/ cross objections/references. Pending appeals below the specified tax limits in pare 3 above may be withdrawn/ not pressed.”

Tax effect (15) cases below 50 lakhs :- 5 -:

Income Tax-5,New Delhi Vs. Keshav Power Ltd., in SLP No.21497/2019

dated 16.08.2019 reported in 2019(8)TMI 811(SC) has also applied the

Circular No.17/2019 dated 08.08.2019 has dismissed the appeal holding

as follows:

“Since the tax effect involved in the matter is less than Rs.2/- crores, going by the latest circular issued by the CBDT, we see no reason to interfere in this matter. The Special Leave Petition is dismissed, leaving all the questions of law open”.

point out, upon necessary further verifications, and to seek recall the

dismissal of appeals and restoration of the appeals in the cases (i) in

which it can be demonstrated that the appeals are covered by the

exceptions, and (ii) which are inadvertently included in this bunch of

appeals, wherein the tax effect, in terms of the CBDT circular (supra),

exceeds Rs 50,00,000. None opposes this prayer; we accept the same. We

make it clear that the appellants shall be at liberty to point out the cases

which are wrongly included in the appeals so summarily dismissed, either

owing to wrong computation of tax effect or owning to such cases being

covered by the permissible exceptions- or for any other reason, and we

will take appropriate remedial steps in this regard.

by the Hon”ble Supreme Court in the case of the Commissioner of Income

Tax effect (15) cases below 50 lakhs :- 6 -:

Tax-5,New Delhi Vs. Keshav Power Ltd., referred to supra and in the light of the above discussions, all the appeals filed by the Revenue are found to be non-maintainable.

Pronounced in the open court today on 22nd August, 2019. Sd/- Sd/- (इंटूर� रामा राव) (जॉज/ माथन) (GEORGE MATHAN) (INTURI RAMA RAO) �या0यक सद,य/JUDICIAL MEMBER लेखा सद,य/ACCOUNTANT MEMBER

चे�नई/Chennai, 1दनांक/Dated: 22nd August, 2019. K S Sundaram

आदेश क� �0त2ल3प अ4े3षत/Copy to: 1. अपीलाथ�/Appellant 4. आयकर आयु5त/CIT 2. ��यथ�/Respondent 5. 3वभागीय �0त0न�ध/DR 3. आयकर आयु5त (अपील)/CIT(A) 6. गाड/ फाईल/GF