V M Procon Pvt Ltd Vs Assistant Director of Income Tax & Anr. (Gujarat High Court)
The Gujarat High Court considered a writ petition filed under Article 227 of the Constitution challenging orders passed under Section 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, whereby the tax authorities refused to condone delay in filing Form 10-IC for Assessment Year 2021-22 and consequently denied the benefit of the concessional tax regime under Section 115BAA of the Act. The petitioner sought quashing of the rejection orders and a direction to allow electronic filing of Form 10-IC and reprocessing of the return to grant the reduced tax rate of 22%.
The petitioner had filed its return of income for AY 2021-22 on 15.12.2021 within the due date, declaring total income of ₹1,98,03,950. Section 115BAA, inserted by the Taxation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, permits domestic companies to opt for a concessional tax rate of 22% subject to fulfilment of specified conditions and filing of Form 10-IC in the prescribed manner before the due date. The petitioner claimed that it satisfied all substantive conditions under Section 115BAA and computed its tax liability at the concessional rate but failed to electronically file Form 10-IC due to an oversight and technical issues, as the provision was being applied for the first time.
