Asit Kumar Dutta Vs ITO (ITAT Kolkata)
The appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Kolkata, involved Asit Kumar Dutta against the penalty of Rs.1,17,641/- imposed under Section 271(1)(c) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for the assessment year 2016-17. The penalty, which represented 100% of the tax sought to be evaded, was levied by the Assessing Officer (AO) and subsequently confirmed by the Ld. CIT(A). The facts of the case indicate that the assessee, a salaried employee of SAIL, Durgapur Steel Plant, initially filed a return declaring an income of Rs.10,37,040/-. A revised return was later filed, reducing the total income to Rs.4,96,170/- by claiming deductions under Section 80DDB and Section 80E of the Act. During the scrutiny assessment under Section 143(3), the AO found these deductions to be incorrectly claimed and added them back to the assessee’s income. Following this disallowance, the AO initiated penalty proceedings under Section 271(1)(c) for furnishing inaccurate particulars of income. The assessee’s defence, both before the CIT(A) and the ITAT, centered on the assertion that the incorrect deductions were claimed by a third person by mistake, with no malafide intent, and that all relevant facts were fully disclosed in the original and revised returns.
