Case Law Details
M/s Goodyear India Ltd. Vs CIT (Supreme Court)
The High Court essentially placed reliance on two letters written by the assessee and assumed that it was in the form of admission of non-disclosure and an offer was given by the assessee to pay the tax and penalty, as the case may be.
We have perused the two letters which had weighed with the High Court. Our analysis of the said letters is that, they had been in refutal of the allegations contained in the news items which were published around that time, when the communication was sent by the assessee to the Department with an explanation and a without-prejudice offer.
In our opinion, such communication(s) cannot be treated as admission of non-disclosure as such. What is significant to note is that in the present case, the disclosure is attributed to Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Co., USA, filed by it in the proceedings in USA; and not by the assessee as such. It is not the case of the Department that the amount referred to in the said disclosure has been received in the accounts of the assessee or spent for and on behalf of the appellant – assessee under instruction, so as to be treated as undisclosed income of the appellant.
As aforesaid, the two communications relied upon by the High Court cannot be taken as admission of non-disclosure nor being a case of unconditional offer to pay tax in that behalf. On the other hand, we find that the ITAT had exhaustively analyzed the entire evidence, including the two letters and taken a view which, in our opinion, is a possible view. That being purely a finding of fact, no interference was warranted.
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