WELLMAN LOGISTICE PVT. LTD. ,KOLKATA vs. ACIT(OSD),WARD-4(1), KOLKATA. , KOLKATA

I however, find that although the share subscribing companies did not appear before the AO yet the material documents requisitioned by the AO in his notice u/s. 131 had already been furnished before the AO by the shareholders. From the perusal of the assessment order, I find that save & except making an assertion that the Directors of the share applicant companies failed to appear before him, the AO did not bring on record any substantive material to disprove the documentary evidences which the appellant as well as the share subscribers had placed on AO’s record in support of the share subscription transactions. The material available on record shows that the AO had also made independent enquiries from the shareholders u/d. 133(6) of the Act. The facts and circumstances I.T.A. No.: 694/Kol/2023 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Wellman Logistics Pvt. Ltd. furnished by the shareholders in response thereto, supported the AR’s contention that the identity of all the five share subscribing companies stood established. Referring to the copies of the bank statements, the AR established that payment of subscription amounts were recorded in the bank statements of the respective companies. The entries in the bank statement proved that the share subscription amount was transferred through banking channel. Besides the entries in the bank statements also substantiated that before payment of share subscription mounts, no cash was deposited in the bank accounts of the subscribing companies. The AR further pointed out that appellant had furnished explanations before the AO with regard to immediate sources from which share subscription amounts were paid. On these facts therefore, I find that in terms of section 106 of the Evidence Act, the creditworthiness of the share subscribers and the genuineness of the transactions could not have been doubted by the AO merely on the ground that Directors of the share subscribers did not appear before the AO for verification. Gainful reference in this regard may be made to following observations made the Hon’ble Bombay High Court in the case of CIT Vs. Orchid Industries Limited (397 ITR 136). “6. The Tribunal has considered that the Assessee has produced on record the documents to establish the genuineness of the party such as PAN of all the creditors along with the confirmation, their bank statements showing payment of share application money. It was also observed by the Tribunal that the Assessee has also produced the entire record regarding issuance of shares i.e. allotment of shares to these parties, their share application forms, allotment letters and share certificates, so also the books of account. The balance sheet and profit and loss account of these persons disclosed that these persons had sufficient funds in their accounts for investing in the shares of the Assessee. In view of these voluminous documentary evidence, only because those persons had not appeared before the Assessing Officer would not negate the case of the assessee. The judgment in case of Gagandeep Infrastructure (P) Ltd. (supra) would be applicable in the facts and circumstances of the present case.” 4.8. There is per se no quarrel with the proposition put forth by the AO that m tax proceedings the AO is not required to accept apparent as real. The AO has both duty as well as obligation to bring out the truth and present the real facts. For that purpose the AO is permitted to undertake investigation and enquiries so as to unearth the actual and real facts. The AO has been given power by the Legislature to I.T.A. No.: 694/Kol/2023 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Wellman Logistics Pvt. Ltd. prove that apparent is not real and thereafter make the assessment with reference to actual state of affairs. There is also no denial that the AO while assessing the income is permitted to take into consideration the human probabilities and if he proves that the conduct of the parties is not in conformity with the actions of prudent person then he may overlook the form of the transaction and find out the substance of the transaction and determine the tax consequences based on the real facts. In the impugned order the AO has doubted the genuineness of the entire transaction on the ground that it was against the human probability that the companies would invest in shares of the appellant company. The AO has also alleged that the unaccounted monies belonging to the assessee and ploughed back in the form of share capital by adopting the modus operandi where the unaccounted cash was rotated in four-five layers and thereafter the money was brought into the assessee’s bank account in the form of share capital. I however find that before these conclusions were recorded the AO himself did not bring on record sufficient tangible and cogent material to support his conclusion that the amount credited in the assessee’s books in the form of share capital and premium actually represented assessee’s undisclosed income. 4.15. Applying the judicial principles laid down in the above decisions to the appellant’s case. I find that the AO had made addition u/s. 68 without proper application of mine and incorrect appreciation of the relevant provisions of the Act. In the above judicial decisions, it has been held that before an addition u/s. 68 is made, it is necessary for the AO to bring on record irrefutable material or evidence which would prove that there was no valid issuance of the shares and for that reason the assessee had failed to prove identity & creditworthiness of the shareholders and also failed to substantiate genuineness. If these touchstones are applied to the appellant’s case then I find that the copies income tax acknowledgments and service of notices at their addresses established the identity of all the share subscribers. In the balance sheets of the respective share subscribers, the investments in assessee’s share were recorded and each subscriber in its balance sheet had disclosed sufficiently large investible funds. The assessee had also filed copies of the bank statements of the respective share subscribing companies which established that the share subscription amounts were received through banking channel. The sources of making payment were also furnished and the entries in bank statements indicated that there was no deposit of cash prior to I.T.A. No.: 694/Kol/2023 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Wellman Logistics Pvt. Ltd. clearance of the cheques in assessee’s favour. All these facts and documents considered cumulatively establish that the assessee had discharged the onus of proving creditworthiness of the share sub subscribers and the genuineness of the transactions. I therefore hold that the AO was not justified in making the impugned addition of Rs.,1,82,50,000/- u/s. 68 of the Act which is accordingly deleted. These grounds are therefore allowed.” 7.3. Before arriving at our finding, we refer to the following judicial precedents to buttress our observations and conclusions: i) The decision of Hon’ble Jurisdictional High Court of Calcutta in the case of CIT v. Dataware Pvt. Ltd. in ITAT No. 263 of 2011 dated 21.09.2011 wherein Hon’ble jurisdictional High Court held that “After getting the PAN number and getting the information that the creditor is assessed under the Act, the Assessing officer should enquire from the Assessing Officer of the creditor as to the genuineness" of the transaction and whether such transaction has been accepted by the Assessing officer of the creditor but instead of adopting such course, the Assessing officer himself could not enter into the return of the creditor and brand the same as unworthy of credence.” ii) Decision of Hon’ble Madras High Court in the case of CIT v. Creative World Telefilms P. Ltd. (2011) 333 ITR 100 (Mad) wherein it was held as under: “In the case in hand, it was not disputed that the assessee had given the details of name and address of the shareholder, their PAN/GIR number and had also given the cheque number, name of the bank. It was expected on the part of the Assessing Officer to make proper investigation and reach the shareholders. The Assessing Officer did nothing except issuing summons which were ultimately returned back with an endorsement "not traceable". The Assessing Officer ought to have found out their details through PAN cards, bank account details or from their bankers so as to reach the shareholders since all the relevant material details and particulars were given by the assessee to the Assessing Officer. In the above circumstances, the view taken by the Tribunal could not be faulted. No substantial question of law was involved in the appeal.'' I.T.A. No.: 694/Kol/2023 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Wellman Logistics Pvt. Ltd. iii) Judgment of Hon’ble Jurisdictional High Court in the case of Exoimp Resources (India) Ltd. vs. CIT (supra), wherein it was held as follows: “It is incumbent upon the Assessing Authority to examine the explanation of the creditor and arrive at a conclusion as to whether the explanation was satisfactory. The conclusion arrived by the Assessing Authority is to be communicated to the assessee if such explanation is not considered satisfactory. If thereupon the assessee submits any comments or furnishes further information, in that event, the Assessing Authority has to examine the same and arrive at his own conclusion. The inbuilt safeguard provided in section 68 cannot be ignored by the Assessing Authority at his sweet will. The Assessing Authority can add the share capital as undisclosed income if no explanation is offered by the assessee. But since the details/explanations were offered, it was incumbent on the Assessing Authority to examine the same and arrive at a cogent conclusion. Assessing Officer having failed to discharge such obligation the addition is not sustainable in law.., case of CIT vs. Lovely Exports Ltd. (2008) 216 CTR 195 (SC) that where share application money.” 7.4. In the course of assessment proceeding, Ld. AO directed the assessee to produce the director of the assessee and also the directors of the subscriber companies along with relevant documentary evidence and details which was not complied with in full. Ld. Counsel submitted that mere non-appearance of directors is no basis for invoking provisions of section 68 of the act for which he placed reliance on the decision of Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of CIT v. Orissa Corporation (P) Ltd. (1986) 159 ITR 78 (SC) wherein it was held as under: “In this case the assessee had given the names and addresses of the alleged creditors. It was in the knowledge of the revenue that the said creditors were the income-tax assessees. Their index number was in the file of the revenue. The revenue, apart from issuing notices under section 131 at the instance of the assessee, did not pursue the matter further. The revenue did not examine the source of income of the said alleged creditors to find out whether they were credit-worthy or were such who could advance the alleged loans. There was no effort made to pursue the so-called alleged creditors. In those circumstances, the assessee could not do any further. In the premises, if the Tribunal came to the conclusion that the assessee had discharged the burden I.T.A. No.: 694/Kol/2023 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Wellman Logistics Pvt. Ltd. that lay on him, then it could not be said that such a conclusion was unreasonable or perverse or based on no evidence. If the conclusion was based on some evidence on which a conclusion could be arrived at, no question of law as such could arise. The High Court was, therefore, right in refusing to refer the questions sought for. Decision of the High Court affirmed.”

We notice that all the details were very much placed before the Assessing Officer but while framing the assessment, no efforts have been made by the Assessing Officer to examine the correctness of various proof, filed by the assessee by carrying out any investigation. Merely for non-appearance of the directors, the ld. Assessing Officer disregarded all these documents which have been placed before various statutory authorities including Registrar Of Companies, Income Tax Department and Schedule Banks. The assessee by way of filing all these documents necessary to prove identity, creditworthiness and genuineness of the alleged transaction, has discharged the initial burden casted upon it under the provisions of section 68 of the Act. Unless and until, the assessing authority finds any lacuna or adversity or defect in the said documents, the burden to prove remains on the Revenue authorities. In the instant case, ld. Assessing Officer failed to discharge the burden and summarily disregarded the documents filed by the assessee by merely referring to some decisions and not going into the facts of the case except referring to the price per share.

Further, in respect of ground nos. 3, 4 and 5, reference to the judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of NRA Iron & Steel Pvt. Ltd. (412 ITR 161) is found to be distinguishable on facts in as much as in the said decision, Ld. AO has made extensive enquiries and some of investors were found to be non-existent. Upon going through the facts involved in that judgment, it is noted that, in the decided case the AO had made extensive enquiries and from that he had found that some of the investor companies were non-existent, which is certainly not the case before the undersigned. In the decided case, certain investor companies also failed to produce their bank statements proving the source for making investments in assessee company. In the facts o f the present case however not only have the shareholders furnished their bank statements and investment schedules to establish the source of funds but they have also furnished their respective sources of funds in response to notices issued by the AO u/s. 133(6) of the Act.

We, therefore, respectfully following the judgment referred hereinabove by the Hon’ble Courts and also considering the facts and circumstances of the case, are of considered view that since the assessee has sufficiently explained the identity and creditworthiness of the share subscriber companies and the genuineness of the transaction of applying for the equity shares of the assessee company and since nothing contrary to the evidence filed by the assessee has been placed on record by the Revenue, except the reason that the directors failed to appear to the summons issued u/s. 131 of the Act, we find no reason to interfere with the meritorious finding of the Ld. CIT(A). We accordingly dismiss the grounds raised by the revenue in this respect.

In the result, appeal of the revenue is dismissed.”

Further, we find that recently the Hon'ble Jurisdictional High Court in the case of Sreeleathers (supra) adjudicated similar issue relating to the addition u/s 68 of the Act dealing with the onus casted upon the assessee to establish the existence, genuineness and creditworthiness of the transaction which is as follows: “3. We have heard Mr. Vipul Kundalia, learned Senior Standing Counsel along with Mr. Anurag Roy, learned Advocate for the appellant and Mr. Avratosh Mazumder, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Avra Mazumder and Mr. Md. Bilwal Hossain, learned Advocates for the respondents.

Before we examine the correctness of the order passed by the Tribunal and consider whether a substantial question of law arises for consideration in this appeal we need to take note of section 68 of the Act. This provision deals with cash credits. It states that where any sum is found credited in the books of an assessee maintained for any previous year, and the assessee offers no explanation about the nature and source thereof or the explanation offered by him is not in the opinion of the Assessing Officer, satisfactory, the sum so credited may be charged to income tax as the income of the assessee of that previous year. The crucial words in the said provision are "assessee offers no explanation". This would mean where the assessee offers no proper, reasonable and acceptable explanation as regard the amount credited in the books maintained by the assessee. No doubt the Income-tax Act places the burden of proof on the tax payer. However, this is only the initial burden. In cases where the assessee offers an explanation to the credit by placing evidence regarding the identity of the investor or lender along with their conformations, it has been held that the assessee has discharged the initial burden and, therefore, the burden shifts on the Assessing Officer to examine the source of the credit so as to be justified in referring to section 68 of the Act. After the Assessing Officer puts the assessee on notice and the assessee submits the explanation with regard to the cash credit, the Assessing Officer should consider the same objectively before he takes a decision to accept or reject it. In Sreelekha Banerjee v. CIT [1963] 49 ITR 112 (SC), it was held that if the explanation given by the assessee shows that the receipt is not of income nature, the department cannot convert good proof into no proof or otherwise I.T.A. No.: 694/Kol/2023 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Wellman Logistics Pvt. Ltd. unreasonably reject it. On the other hand, if the explanation is unconvincing, the same can be rejected and an inference shows that the amount represents undisclosed income either from a disclosed or an undisclosed source CIT v. P. Mohanakala [2007] 161 Taxman 169/291 ITR 278/210 CTR 20 (SC). The explanation given by the assessee cannot be rejected arbitrarily or capriciously, without sufficient ground on suspicion or on imaginary or irrelevant grounds Lal Mohan Krishna Lal Paul v. CIT [1944] 12 ITR 441 (Cal.) and Anil Kumar Singh v. CIT [1972] 84 ITR 307 (Cal.).

Further to be noted that where the assessee furnishes full details regarding the creditors, it is up to the department to pursue the matter further to locate those creditors and examine their creditworthiness. It has been further held in A.S. Sivan Pillai v. CIT [1958] 34 ITR 328 (Mad.) that while drawing the inference, it cannot be assumed in the absence of any material that there has been some illegalities in the assessee's transaction. Thus, more importantly, as held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in CIT v. Daulat Ram Rawatmull [1973] 87 ITR 349 (SC), the onus of proving that the appellant was not the real was on the party who claims it to be so. Bearing the above legal principles in mind, if we examine the case on hand, it is clear that the assessing officer issued show cause notice only in respect of one of the lender M/s. Fast Glow Distributors. The assessee responded to the show cause notice and submitted the reply dated 22-12-2017.The documents annexed to the reply were classified under 3 categories namely: to establish the identity of the lender, to prove the genuineness of the transactions and to establish the creditworthiness of the lender. The assessing officer has brushed aside these documents and in a very casual manner has stated that mere filing PAN details, balance sheet does not absolve the assessee from his responsibility of proving the nature of transaction. There is no discussion by the assessing officer on the correctness of the stand taken by the assessee. Thus, going by the records placed by the assessee, it could be safely held that the assessee has discharged his initial burden and the burden shifts on the assessing officer to enquire further into the matter which he failed to do. In more than one place the assessing officer used the expression "money laundering." We find such usage to be uncalled for as the allegations of money laundering is a very serious allegations and the effect of a case of money laundering under the relevant Act is markedly different. Therefore, the assessing officer should have desisted from using such I.T.A. No.: 694/Kol/2023 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Wellman Logistics Pvt. Ltd. expression when it was never the case that there was any allegations of money laundering. Paragraphs 5.4 and 5.5 of the assessment order are all personal perception and opinion of the assessing officer which needs to be ignored. Much reliance was placed on the statement of Shri Ashish Kumar Agarwal, which statement has been extracted in full in the assessment order and it cannot be disputed that there is no allegation against the assessee company in the said statement. There is no evidence brought on record by the assessing officer to connect the said entry operator with the loan transaction done by the assessee. Therefore, the statement is of little avail and could not have been the basis for making allegations. The assessing officer ignored the settled legal principle and in spite of the assessee having offered the explanation with regard to the loan transaction, no finding has been recorded as regards the satisfaction on the explanation offered by the assessee. Therefore, the assessing officer ignored the basic tenets of law before invoking his power under section 68 of the Act. Fortunately, for the assessee, CIT(A) has done an elaborate factual exercise, took into consideration, the creditworthiness of the 13 companies the details of which were furnished by the assessee. More importantly, the CIT noted that all these companies responded to the notices issued under section 133 (6) of the Act which fact has not been denied by the assessing officer. On going through the records and the net worth of the lender companies, the CIT has recorded the factual findings that the net worth of those companies is in crores of rupees and they have declared income to the tune of Rs. 45,00,000/- and 75,00,000/-. Therefore, the assessing officer if in his opinion found the explanation offered by the assessee to be not satisfactory, he should have recorded so with reasons. We find that there is no discussion on the explanation offered by the assessee qua, one of the lenders. Admittedly, the assessee was not issued any show cause notice in respect of other lenders. However, they are able to produce the details before the CIT(A) who had in our view rightly appreciated the facts and circumstances of the case. As pointed out earlier, the assessing officer brushed aside the explanation offered by the assessee by stating that merely filing PAN details, balance sheet does not absolve the assessee from his responsibilities of proving the nature of transactions. It is not enough for the assessing officer to say so but he should record reasons in writing as to why the documents which were filed by the assessee along with the reply dated 22-12- 2017 does not go to establish the identity of the lender or prove the genuineness of the transaction or establish the creditworthiness of I.T.A. No.: 694/Kol/2023 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Wellman Logistics Pvt. Ltd. the lender. In the absence of any such finding, we have to hold that the order passed by the assessing officer was utterly perverse and rightly interfered by the CIT(A). The Tribunal re-appreciated the factual position and agreed with the CIT(A). The tribunal apart from taking into consideration, the legal effect of the statement of Ashish Kumar Agarwal also took note of the fact that the notices which were issued by the assessing officer under section 133(6) of the Act to the lenders where duly acknowledged and all the lenders confirmed the loan transactions by filing the documents which were placed before the tribunal in the form of a paper book. These materials were available on the file of the assessing officer and there is no discussion on this aspect. Thus, we find that the tribunal rightly dismissed the appeal filed by the revenue.

For all the above reasons, we find that no question of law much less, substantial question of law arises for consideration in this appeal.

Accordingly, the appeal fails and is dismissed.”

We respectfully following the above decision and on examining the facts of the case, we are of the considered view that the assessee on the extent of the complete documentary evidence has successfully proved the identity, creditworthiness of the share subscribers and genuineness of the transaction coupled with the supported documents and thus, we feel it necessary to delete the alleged addition u/s 68 of the Act at Rs. 1,26,00,000/-. Therefore, all the effective grounds raised