V M Procon Pvt Ltd Vs Assistant Director of Income Tax & Anr. (Gujarat High Court)
Gujarat High Court held that denial of benefit of lower rate of tax u/s. 115BAA of the Income Tax Act on technical ground of mere delay in filing of Form 10-IC unjustified as all the other conditions duly satisfied.
Facts- The petitioner had filed original return of income for Assessment Year 2021-22 on 15.12.2021 declaring total income of Rs. 1,98,03,950/-. By Taxation (Amendment) Ordinance,2019, section 115BAA was inserted in the Act wherein, existing as well as newly formed companies were given liberty to opt for concessional rate of tax at the base rate of 22% with caveat that such assessee-company shall forego all deductions available to it as stated u/s. 115BAA of the Act.
Notably, due to oversight of the accountant and as the petitioner was applying the said provision of the Act for the first time, the accountant did not file Form 10-IC electronically u/s. 115BAA(5) of the Act. Accordingly, the return was processed without giving the benefit of lower rate of tax of 22% and the petitioner was liable to pay additional amount of Rs. 20,48,040/-.
The petitioner, after failing to upload Form 10-IC electronically at multiple times on e-portal, made an application u/s. 119(2)(b) of the Act to condone delay in filing Form 10-IC. The respondent No.2 passed order dated 13.10.2023 u/s. 119(2)(b) of the rejected the application of the petitioner stating that Central Board of Direct Taxes [CBDT] had issued circular for Assessment Year 2020-21 but the case of the petitioner pertains to Assessment Year 2021-22.
