Ekviradevi Gramin Bigarsheti Sahakari Patsanstha Maryadit Vs ITO (ITAT, Pune Bench)
Reassessment Opened for ₹1.47-Crore Bank Deposits, but Addition Made Only u/s 80P: Pune ITAT Quashes the Roving Detour u/s 147
Summary: The Pune Bench of the ITAT has quashed reassessment proceedings where the notice u/s 148 was issued to examine alleged unexplained cash deposits & time deposits aggregating to ₹1,47,36,100, but the AO ultimately made no addition concerning those transactions and instead disallowed deduction of ₹7,06,146 u/s 80P(2)(a)(i). Following the jurisdictional Bombay High Court decision in CIT v. Jet Airways (I) Ltd., the Tribunal held that the AO could not independently assess an altogether different item after abandoning the very issue for which reassessment jurisdiction had been assumed.
Reopening Triggered by Cash & Time Deposits
The assessee was a co-operative credit society. It had not filed its return of income for AY 2018-19, reportedly because its audit report was not received in time.
Information available on the Insight Portal indicated that the assessee had made cash deposits of ₹91,86,100 in The RDCC Urban Bank and had also invested ₹55,50,000 in time deposits. Since no return had been filed, the AO formed the view that these transactions aggregating to ₹1,47,36,100 represented income that had escaped assessment.
