Loading judgment…
No AI summary yet for this case.
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, MUMBAI BENCH “SMC”, MUMBAI
The captioned appeal is preferred by the assessee and is directed against the impugned order dated 17/11/2014 of CIT(A)-14, Mumbai, pertaining to the assessment year 2009-10, which in turn has arisen from an order passed by the Assessing Officer dated 05/12/2011 under section 143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961( in short “the Act”).
(Assessment Year : 2009-10) 2. In this appeal the only issue raised by the assessee is with regard to disallowance of a sum of Rs.9,47,000/- being foreign travel expenses incurred by the employees.
The appellant is a company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and is, inter-alia, engaged in the business of sale of petroleum products like motor spirit, high speed diesel and liquefied petroleum gas, etc. In the course of assessment proceedings the Assessing Officer noted that assessee had claimed an expenditure of Rs.9,47,000/- towards foreign travel expenses of its employees for business visits to East African countries. On being show caused, the explanation of the assessee was found unsatisfactory. The Assessing Officer disallowed the expenditure on two counts, namely, in the absence of the supporting documents of incurrence of expenditure and secondly, that the expenditure was incurred for initiation of new business.
In appeal, the CIT(Appeals) agreed with the assessee that the expenditure was incurred for an existing business. However, he retained the disallowance on the ground that the expenses were not supported by any documents to prove that the travel was actually performed by the employees of the assessee to East African countries. Against such disallowance assessee is in appeal before the Tribunal.
Before me, the Ld. Representative for the assessee pointed out to pages 63 to 107 of the Paper Book, wherein the details of the expenditure including the primary documents namely invoices from the (Assessment Year : 2009-10) travel agent, reimbursement vouchers of the employees, etc. have been placed. It was therefore, contended that the aforesaid material fully meets with the objection of the lower authorities and that the claim of the assessee be considered as per law.
The Ld. Departmental Representative for the Revenue on the other hand, relied upon the order of the lower authorities in support of the case of the Revenue.
Having considered the rival submissions, I deem it fit and proper to restore the matter to the file of Assessing Officer, who shall examine the material referred to by the assessee, copies of which are placed in the Paper Book and thereafter, decide the issue of allowability of the impugned expenditure of Rs.9,47,000/- afresh. Needless to say that the Assessing Officer shall allow the assessee a reasonable opportunity to explain the claim and only thereafter, the Assessing Officer shall pass an order afresh as per law on the aforesaid limited aspect.
In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed as above. Order pronounced in the open court on 29/02/2016.