Dhananjay Tradelink Pvt. Ltd. Vs ITO (ITAT Ahmedabad)
Reopening on mere suspicion quashed: STR tag alone can’t justify 69C addition for alleged bogus trade
ITAT Ahmedabad allowed assessee’s appeal & deleted addition of ₹25 lakh made u/s 69C r/w 115BBE, also quashing reassessment u/s 147. Tribunal held that AO reopened assessment merely on general Insight/STR information alleging that counter-party Kirit Dahyabhai Patel was an accommodation-entry provider, without any tangible, assessee-specific material to show escapement of income. Assessee had produced invoices, stock registers, delivery challans & bank statements evidencing genuine trading transactions & receipt of sale proceeds through banking channels; Revenue brought no contrary evidence nor conducted independent enquiry. Further, the issue had been examined in original scrutiny; reopening on the same material amounted to change of opinion, impermissible in law. Accordingly, both the reopening & the consequential 69C addition were set aside & appeal was allowed
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT AHMEDABAD
This appeal has been filed by the Assessee against the order dated 20.01.2025 passed by the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi (‘Ld. CIT (A)’ in short), under Section 250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act’ in short) for Assessment Year 2018-19.
