Surendra Nath Mohanty Vs NWC (ITAT Delhi)
Delhi ITAT: Allotment Letter Constitutes Agreement for Section 56(2)(x); Stamp Duty Value on Allotment Date to Prevail over Registration Date
The Delhi ITAT held that, for the purposes of section 56(2)(x), the allotment letter issued by the Air Force Naval Housing Board (AFNHB) constitutes an agreement for transfer, entitling the purchaser to adopt the stamp duty value (SDV) as on the date of allotment, instead of the SDV prevailing on the date of registration, provided the consideration or part thereof had been paid through banking channels before or on the date of the agreement. In the present case, the assessee had been allotted the property in 2008, paid the entire consideration through instalments between 2008 and 2014, and obtained possession in 2014, though the sale deed was registered only in 2017, when the SDV had increased, leading to an addition under section 56(2)(x). The Tribunal rejected the Revenue’s contention that only a registered agreement could qualify for the benefit of the proviso and held that the statute merely requires an agreement fixing the consideration, coupled with payment through prescribed banking modes. Relying on the Mumbai Tribunal’s decision in Sulochana Saijan Modi v. ITO, it held that an allotment letter is sufficient to be treated as the agreement for sale. Accordingly, the Tribunal directed the Assessing Officer to adopt the SDV as on the date of allotment in 2008, delete the addition based on the 2017 SDV, and allow the benefit of the provisos to section 56(2)(x).
