BOX CORNER PVT. LTD.,KOLKATA vs. ITO, WARD-9(2), KOLKATA, KOLKATA

The assessee in the present case is a Company, which filed its return of income for the year under consideration on 16.09.2012 declaring its total income at NIL. In the assessment completed under section 143(3) vide an order dated 26.03.2015, the total income of the assessee was determined by the Assessing Officer at Rs.5,07,00,000/- after making addition under section 68 amounting to Rs.5,07,00,000/- on account of share capital and share premium received by the assessee during the year under consideration by treating the same as unexplained cash credit.

Against the order passed by the Assessing Officer under section 143(3), an appeal was preferred by the assessee before the ld. CIT(Appeals) and since there was no satisfactory compliance on the part of the assessee to the notices issued by him fixing the said appeal for hearing from time to time, the ld. CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeal of the assessee vide his appellate order dated 24.03.2017 passed ex-parte thereby confirming the addition made by the Assessing Officer under section 68. Aggrieved by the order of the ld. CIT(Appeals), the assessee has preferred this appeal before the Tribunal.

We have heard the arguments of both the sides and also perused the relevant material available on record. The ld. Counsel for the assessee has submitted that proper and sufficient opportunity was not given by the ld. CIT(Appeals) to the assessee before dismissing its appeal by his impugned order passed ex-parte. He has submitted that full details of shareholders alongwith their Permanent Account Numbers, copies of application forms and other relevant evidences were filed by the assessee before the Assessing Officer during the course of assessment proceedings. He has also submitted that even the notices issued by the Assessing Officer under section 133(6) of the Act were duly responded by all the share subscribers by filing the relevant documents required by the Assessing Officer. He has contended that the Assessing Officer, however, still treated the share capital and share premium amount received from the said share subscribers as unexplained cash credit under section 68 for the failure of the assessee to produce the concerned share subscribers for his examination/verification during the course of assessment proceedings. He has contended that the assessee is now in a position to produce the said share subscribers for examination/verification before the Assessing Officer and urged that one more opportunity may be given to the assessee by sending the matter back to the Assessing Officer. Since the ld. D.R. has also not raised any objection for sending the matter back to the Assessing Officer as sought by the ld. Counsel for the assessee, we set aside the impugned order passed by the ld. CIT(Appeals) ex-parte and restore the matter to the file of the Assessing Officer for deciding the same afresh after giving one more opportunity to the assessee to produce the concerned share subscribers for examination/verification. As undertaken by the ld. Counsel for the assessee, the assessee shall make due compliance before the Assessing Officer and shall extend all the possible cooperation so as to enable the Assessing Officer to complete the assessment afresh expeditiously.

In the result, the appeal of the assessee is treated as allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open Court on January 14, 2019.