ADIT, DEHRADUN vs. M/S. FUGRO SURVEY PTE. LTD., DEHRADUN

The Appellant, Assistant Director of Income Tax, International Taxation, Dehradun (hereinafter referred to as ‘the revenue’) by filing the present appeal sought to set aside the impugned order dated 02.05.2012 passed by the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals)-II, Dehradun qua the assessment year 2004- 05.

Perusal of the aforesaid appeal filed by the Revenue apparently show that the same is having low tax effect as per CBDT Circular No.21/2015 dated 10th December, 2015 vide which the Revenue has been directed not to prefer any appeal in case the tax effect is less than Rs.10,00,000/- and this factual position has been fairly conceded by the Ld. D.R. The Ld. A.R. contended that the appeal of the Revenue may be dismissed in the light of CBDT Circular (supra).

We have heard parties on the issue in controversy and perused the material on record. Perusal of CBDT Circular (supra) shows that monetary limit for filing the appeal by the Department before the Tribunal, Hon'ble High Court and Hon'ble Supreme Court has been revised and the relevant portion of the aforesaid circular is extracted as under:

This instruction will apply retrospectively to pending appeals and appeals to be filed henceforth in High Courts/ Tribunals. Pending appeals below the specified tax limits in para 3 above may be withdrawn / not pressed. Appeals before the Supreme Court will be governed by the instructions on this subject, operative at the time when such appeal was filed."

The contention of Ld. Sr. D.R. that he needs some time to procure the report from the Assessing Officer to work out the tax effect, is not tenable because when apparently, the appeal in question is covered under CBDT Circular No.21/2015 dated 10th December, 2015 (supra), the Revenue cannot import the facts within the knowledge of the Assessing Officer to further prolong the matter. However, in case, any fact which is otherwise not on record, warrants the restoration of the present appeal, the revenue is at liberty to approach the Tribunal under relevant provisions of law.

In view of the CBDT Circular No.21 dated 10.12.2015 having retrospective effect and what has been discussed above, we are of the considered view that the aforesaid appeal is not maintainable because of low tax effect i.e. less than Rs.10,00,000/- hence, the aforesaid appeal filed by the Revenue is hereby dismissed having been become infructuous.