Stay of 80% of demand granted as 20% of disputed tax, interest and penalty already recovered

Thasirkhan Abdul Hameed Vs DCIT (Madras High court)

Madras High Court granted the stay in respect of 80% of the demand, as 20% of the disputed tax, interest and penalty already recovered by the department from the bank account of the petitioner.

Facts- The petitioner would submit that being an NRI, he was always shuttling between Malaysia and India. In this process, by oversight, when the returns were filed for the assessment years 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, the NRE receipts and NRE interest were omitted to be included. These amounts though excluded from the taxable income and exempted under Section 10 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, ought to have been included while disclosing the capital account, however, by oversight the said amounts were omitted.

However, the revised return for the assessment years 2014-2015 to 2016-2017 could not be filed within time as stipulated u/s. 139(5) of the Act. But the petitioner has thereafter filed the revised return on 25.11.2018 for the assessment year 2017-2018. The revised return was accepted in the month of March, 2019. For the assessment year 2018-2019, the capital account as on 31.03.2018 reflected a total sum of Rs.10,81,65,290/- as shown in the income tax return.

While so, the petitioner has been served with notices u/s. 142(1) of the Act on 13.01.2020, 06.03.2020, 16.07.2020, 26.08.2020 and 23.11.2020. These notices were issued when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak. Therefore, the petitioner was not in a position to reply the said notices. Thereafter, he had received a notice dated 07.01.2021 stating that there was an introduction of a huge capital amounting to Rs.7,73,84,755/- for the year under consideration.

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