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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, CUTTACK
Before: SHRI N.S SAINI
This is an appeal filed by the assessee against the order of CIT(A)-1,
Bhubaneswar, dated 29.1.2015, for the assessment year 2002-03.
The assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal:
“1. That the order dated 29.01.2015 passed by the learned CIT(Appeals) in dismissing the appeal is against principles of natural justice, unjustified, erroneous, arbitrary, contrary to facts and bad in law.
That on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the learned CIT(Appeals) in holding that:
a. the appellant has not produced necessary details and evidences; b. no arguments have been made against the factual findings of the AO;
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c. the conclusion of the AO that the expenses made through commercial organizations have not been proved to have been made for charitable purposes has not been contradicted; and d. the AO's findings that the expenses incurred are not in furtherance of charitable activities and objective of the trust have not been contradicted . is arbitrary, unjustified, erroneous, and bad, both in the eye of law and on facts. 3. That on the facts and circumstances of the case, the learned CIT(Appeals) has erred both on facts and in law in dismissing the grounds by ignoring/ not considering the documents filed in the Paper Book before him. 4. That the payments made by the appellant: a. to Cuttack Milk Union for cyclone shelter homes for of Rs.21,61,933/-; and b. Rs.13,99,804/-towards cattle feed subsidy to farmer's are for charitable purpose' and hence the denial of claim of exemption u/s.11 of the Act is on mis-appreciation of facts, arbitrary, erroneous, and bad, both in the eye of law and on facts.
That on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the order of the learned CiT(Appeals) in dismissing the Ground in respect of denial of exemption u/s.11 of the Act by holding that AO is correct in denying the claim of exemption u/s.11 of the Act is contrary to facts, unjustified, arbitrary, erroneous, and bad, both in the eye of law and on facts.
That without prejudice to Grounds (1) to (5) above, the learned CIT(Appeals) has failed to appreciate and adjudicate that, the learned CIT having granted registration of the trust under the Act, the learned AO by misquoting the contents of the Trust Deed and in holding that the surplus fund of the assessee Trust can be diverted to OMFED (which is a commercial organization) after the dissolution of the trust and hence the benefit of sec 11 is not allowed to the assessee Trust is contrary to facts, is arbitrary, erroneous, and bad, both in the eye of law and on facts.
7 . That the learned AO in treating the entire interest on fixed deposits of Rs.41,45,633/- as income from other sources and upholding of the same by the learned CIT(Appeals is contrary to facts, arbitrary, unjustified, erroneous, bad in law and legally untenable.”
In the instant case, the undisputed facts of the case are that the
assessee is a charitable trust which has duly been registered u/s.12A of the
Act by the competent authority. The assessee trust claimed to have
incurred expenditure of Rs.21,61,933/- for repairing of shelter homes and
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claimed Rs.13,99,804/- was for the cattle feed subsidy. The Assessing
Officer observed that the assessee has made payment of Rs.21,66,933/-
to Cuttack Milk Union in respect of expenditure claimed under the head
“cyclone shelter homes repairs and maintenance” and made payment of
Rs.13,99,804/- to OMFED in respect of expenditure claimed under the head
“cattle feed subsidy”. The assessee produced copies of bills and vouchers
of Cuttack Milk Union and explained to the Assessing Officer that the
assessee availed repairing service of shelter homes from Cuttack Milk Union
and, therefore, made payment to that organization.
Similarly, the assessee produced bills of OMFED before the Assessing
Officer and explained that in pursuance of the direction of the assessee,
the said OMFED supplied cattle feeds to the owners of cattle at subsidised
rate and, therefore, the subsidy amount was reimbursed to OMFED.
However, the Assessing Officer observed that the said two organisations
namely, Cuttack Milk Union and OMFED were commercial organisations and
the payment to them by the assessee cannot be treated as application for
charitable purposes. The Assessing Officer, therefore, disallowed the above
amount as not application for charitable purposes.
The Assessing Officer also observed that clause 25 of the trust deed
provides that on dissolution of the trust, the funds of the trust will revert
back to the settler and, therefore, the assessee is not eligible for exemption
u/s.11 of the Act. Finding that no funds were utilized for furtherance of the
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objects of the trust, the Assessing Officer added the entire interest income
of Rs.41,45,630/- as the total income of the assessee trust and,
accordingly, levied tax thereon.
On appeal, the CIT(A) confirmed the action of the Assessing Officer.
Before me, ld Authorised Representative of the assessee submitted
that the lower authorities have not been able to appreciate the nature and
purpose of the expenditure incurred by the assessee under the head
“cyclone shelter homes repairs and maintenance’ and “cattle feeds
subsidy” and consequently erred in holding that no fund was expended by
the assessee in furtherance of the charitable objects of the trust during the
year under consideration. He submitted that the matter may be restored
back to the file of the Assessing Officer for verification of the bills for the
same.
On the other hand, ld Departmental Representative supported the
orders of lower authorities.
I have heard the rival submissions and perused the orders of lower
authorities and materials available on record. I find that the assessee trust
has not paid Rs.21,61,933/- to Cuttack Milk Union as donation. The
payment to Cuttack Milk Union was made as consideration for services
rendered by them at the direction of the assessee trust. It is not in dispute
that the bills raised by Cuttack Milk Union show that they have repaired the
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cyclone shelter homes at the direction of the assessee and, therefore,
received consideration for services rendered by them or work done by
them. The assessee incurred expenditure in question not for the benefit of
Cuttack Milk Union but the expenditure was incurred for the benefit of the
inhabitant of the cyclone shelter homes. Therefore, in my considered
opinion, the lower authorities were not justified in treating the aforesaid
payment as not application for charitable purposes by the assessee.
Further, it is observed that the payments to OMFED was also not for the
purpose of benefit to OMFED. OMFED sold cattle feeds at a concessional
rate to the persons engaged in raring of cattle. The amount of concession
or subsidy which was actually provided to those persons by OMFED on
behalf of the assessee were spent by the assessee and the assessee paid
the said amount to OMFED. Thus, the payment made to OMFED was for
the benefit which was actually received by the persons who were engaged
in raring cattle and the same was for the charitable purposes. In view of
my above findings, I find that the lower authorities were not justified in
holding that no amount was spent by the assessee trust during the year
under consideration in furtherance of its charitable objects. As the ld A.R.
of the assessee has submitted before me that the issue should be restored
back to the file of the Assessing Officer for verification of bills and vouchers.
I, therefore, set aside the orders of lower authorities and remand the
matter back to the file of the Assessing Officer for limited purposes of
verification of bills and vouchers to ascertain that amount of
Rs.21,66,933/- paid by the assessee to Cuttack Milk Union and
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Rs.13,99,804/- paid to OMFED is not donation to them but for repairs and
maintenance of cyclone shelter home for inhabitants of cyclone shelter
homes and subsidy for cattle feed suppliers to persons raring cattle.
In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical
purposes.
Order pronounced in the open court on 12/04/2017 in the presence of parties.
(N.S Saini) ACCOUNTANT MEMBER Cuttack; Dated 12/04/2017 B.K.Parida, SPS Copy of the Order forwarded to : 1. The Appellant : OMFED Trust, Plot No.D-2, Sahid Nagar, Bhubaneswar 2. The Respondent. ITO, Ward 2(2), Bhubaneswar. 3. The CIT(A)-1, Bhubaneswar 4. CIT(Exemption), Hyderabad 5. DR, ITAT, Cuttack 6. Guard file. BY ORDER, //True Copy//
SR.PRIVATE SECRETARY ITAT, Cuttack