Khedbrahma Taluka Primary Teachers Co-op. Credit Society Ltd. Vs ADIT (ITAT Ahmedabad)
In a recent ruling, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) Ahmedabad Bench sided with Khedbrahma Taluka Primary Teachers Co-op. Credit Society Ltd., allowing the co-operative society to claim a deduction under Section 80P of the Income Tax Act, 1961, despite a slight delay in filing its income tax return for Assessment Year 2019-20.
The case emerged after the assessee, a credit co-operative society, filed its electronic return of income on October 31, 2019, at 11:45 PM. However, due to what the assessee claimed were technical glitches, the return was officially uploaded on the Income Tax Portal on November 1, 2019, at 00:04:42 hours. This delay of 4 minutes and 42 seconds led the Central Processing Centre (CPC), Bengaluru, to treat the return as belatedly filed under Section 139(4) of the Act. Consequently, the CPC, via an intimation under Section 143(1), denied the Section 80P deduction of Rs. 59,84,109/-, resulting in a tax demand of Rs. 22,64,181/- against the assessee’s declared ‘Nil’ income.
The assessee appealed this decision to the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi. The CIT(A)-NFAC, however, dismissed the appeal, relying on previous ITAT rulings, including Smt. Revathi Raju vs. ITO (ITA No. 1425/Bang/2018) and the ITAT Special Bench Rajkot’s decision in Saffire Garments Vs. ITO (ITA No. 397/Rajkot/2009), which generally uphold the denial of deductions for belated returns.
