Prakash Praveen Kumar Vs ITO (ITAT Bangalore)
Assessee is an individual engaged in contract works who had a GST proceeding against Asst. Commissioner of Commercial Taxes for issuing bogus sale bills without actual movement of goods or services & had taken benefit of GST Input. Assessee had been appraised of making purchases from a firm for which assessee has categorically denied by producing purchase registers as well as bank statements which shows no transactions with such firm. AO, on credible information from Regional Economic Intelligence Committee had added such purchase amounts as Undisclosed Bank credits & also considered investments in Time Deposits as Undisclosed Investments u/s 69.
CIT dismissed the appeal of assessee on grounds that assessee has failed to substantiate the source & considered no merit in the grounds raised by assessee.
ITAT considered the contentions of assessee that he filed his return of income u/s 44AD & therefore, the additions made u/s 69 is illegal & bad in law as assessee is not required to maintain any books of accounts. This section is a deeming section & it overrides the provisions of section 28 to 43C of the Act provided that the total receipt does not exceed Rs.2 crores. ITAT also agreed with the contention of assessee that information called for by the Dept. of Commercial Taxes was with regard to bogus purchase transactions & it had nothing to do with bogus/ fictitious sales as alleged by AO. ITAT also held that additions were purely based on misinformation & without any evidence brought on record by AO.
