Sharda Chambers Premises Co-Op Society Ltd Vs ACIT (ITAT Mumbai)
The Mumbai Bench of the ITAT partly allowed the assessee’s appeal for AY 2013-14 in the case of Sharda Chambers Premises Co-operative Society Ltd., holding that the same rental/licence fee income cannot be taxed twice under different heads.
The assessee, a co-operative housing society, had earned licence fee by permitting cellular companies to install telecom infrastructure on its premises. A sum of ₹5.77 lakh received from Chennai Network Infrastructure Ltd. (CNIL) was initially treated by the Assessing Officer as “Income from Other Sources”, while other similar receipts were assessed under “Income from House Property”. On appeal, the CIT(A) accepted the assessee’s contention that CNIL had stepped into the shoes of Aircel Ltd. pursuant to transfer of infrastructure business and directed the AO to treat CNIL receipts also as income from house property.
Before the ITAT, the assessee demonstrated that the CNIL receipt had already been included in its computation under the head “Income from House Property”, and that giving effect to the CIT(A)’s direction without verification would result in impermissible double addition. The Tribunal accepted this contention and held that once income is already offered and assessed under the correct head, no further addition can be made merely due to change of head.
Accordingly, the ITAT directed the Assessing Officer to verify the computation and ensure that no double taxation is made in respect of the CNIL receipt. The second ground relating to another addition was not pressed and was dismissed. The appeal was thus partly allowed.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT MUMBAI
