DCIT Vs Amit Agarwal (ITAT Kolkata)
Material Facts: The Revenue filed appeals against the orders of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-20, Kolkata dated 14.09.2015 for Assessment Year 2013-14, whereby penalties imposed under Section 271AAB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 on Shri Amit Agarwal, Shri Madan Lal Beswal and Shri Manoj Beswal were deleted. The assessees were key persons of the Nezone Group, where a search and seizure operation under Section 132 was conducted on 01.08.2012 and subsequent dates. During the post-search proceedings, an undisclosed income of ₹3 crore for the relevant assessment year was admitted in the form of commodity profit through a consolidated disclosure made by Shri Manoj Beswal on behalf of the group. The assessees subsequently filed their respective returns of income, disclosing the income, and the Assessing Officer completed assessments under Section 143(3) on 29.08.2014 by accepting the returned income. Thereafter, penalty proceedings under Section 271AAB were initiated, resulting in levy of penalty under Section 271AAB(1)(a).
Procedural History: The Commissioner (Appeals) deleted the penalties, observing that the Assessing Officer had not established any intention on the part of the assessees to conceal income and that the omission to record the income in the regular books on a day-to-day basis was explained as a mistake of the accountant. The Revenue challenged this deletion before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata.
