ACIT Vs Gondwana Engineers Ltd. (ITAT Nagpur)
ITAT Nagpur held that once the return of income has been filed belatedly, no benefit under section 80IA of the Income Tax Act is allowed. Accordingly, deduction u/s. 80IA disallowed.
Facts- The assessee is an engineering company and deals in designing, constructing, erecting, developing, commissioning and maintaining water treatment plants and projects of various types treating raw water into potable water and other related engineering works for various Municipal Corporation and other Governmental authorities.
Assessee filed the return of income u/s. 139(1) on 01/12/2014. However, in the return of income, no deduction u/s. 801A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 was claimed. The assessee thereafter filed a revised return of income on 10/09/2015 and claimed deduction u/s. 801A. AO, however, disallowed the said claim.
At the very onset, the issue for adjudication here is, whether the benefit under section 80IA of the Act can be granted to the assessee in case of filing of return of income belatedly.
Conclusion- Hon’ble Calcutta High Court in CIT v/s Shelcon Propertyies (P) Ltd. has held that the benefit in the present case can only be claimed in case of fulfillment of the preconditions laid down under section 80AC of the I.T. Act. When the preconditions have not been fulfilled, the benefit cannot be claimed. There is, as such, no reason to find out whether the direction is directory or mandatory. In any event, when the provision is that the benefit cannot be claimed if the return has not been filed on or before the prescribed day, in our view, it is a mandatory direction which prescribes the consequence of omission to file the return in time.
