After considering the rival submissions and carefully gone through the affidavit filed by the assessee as well as the affidavit of Shri Sunil Hirawat, CA of the assessee, we note that the facts of the case do not suggest that the assessee has acted in a malafide manner
Merely because a claim (per the return of income) is a legal claim, or has a legal aspect to it – which would be in each case – the same by itself cannot be a cause for non levy of penalty in every case, as where there is no valid basis for the same (i.e., the legal claim).
For condonation of delay, two questions are required to be seen (i) whether there is sufficient cause and it depends from case to case whether in given circumstances, sufficient cause has been established or not? (ii) Whether the law of limitation has to be enforced or the question of limitation should be taken only as a mere formality.
In the present case, admittedly, assessee made a claim but the same was rejected and disallowed not for the reason that the claim was not genuine or was fabricated but in view of provisions of law that assessee did not deduct TDS thereon.
The figures regarding earning of commission and sub-brokerage have already been mentioned in the above part of this order. The assessee has furnished full details regarding properties in respect of which she has earned commission income.
The object of giving relief to an assessee by allowing indexation is with a view to offset the effect of inflation. As per the CBDT Circular No. 636 dt. 31st Aug., 1992 a fair method of allowing relief by way of indexation is to link it to the period of holding the asset.
The decisions by the apex court in the case of Vinay Cement Ltd. (supra) and Alom Extrusions Ltd. (supra) are admittedly with reference to section 43B and, further, qua the scope of the amendments thereto. The deductibility of the employee’s contribution is not regulated by section 43B.
Ground no.2 about the deduction in respect of property tax amounting to Rs. 2.03 lakh and ground no.3 against the confirmation of disallowance of Rs. 3,96,243 being various expenses incurred against the house property income were not pressed by the learned AR. Both these grounds stand dismissed.
We also note that even in the case of comparables selected by the assessee details of which have been given in para 3 of the order earlier, there is wide fluctuation in the margins of the companies; the lowest margin i.e. 0.34% in case of Ask Me Info Hub Ltd. and the highest margin as 27.98% in case of Allsec Technologies Ltd. Obviously the cases selected by the assessee are not identical otherwise there would not have been so wide variation Excluding the highest margin and the loss case, the average margin of other comparables of the assessee comes to only 4.5% which is 1/6th of the highest margin.
As far as submissions of allowing the deduction in subsequent AY. is concerned we are of the opinion that the question is not arising out of the appeal decided by the FAA and appeal for the next AY is not before us. In these circumstances, we do not want to pass any order in this regard.
