ACIT Vs Harish Kumar Vig (ITAT Ranchi)
Burden on AO to substantiate ITS-based additions – Tribunal sides with Assessee
Revenue filed appeal against the order of CIT(A) which had deleted two major additions made by AO.
AO had made (i) addition of ₹33,75,000/- treating it as unexplained investment in land purchase & (ii) addition of ₹2,54,33,481/- based on ITS data from ITBA. Revenue argued that CIT(A) wrongly deleted these additions without giving AO proper opportunity to rebut.
Assessee explained that the land purchase was fully funded through withdrawals from his capital account with S.P. Mineral, via banking channels. These facts were verified & not controverted by AO. As for the ₹2.54 crore ITS data-based addition, Assessee consistently denied the transactions belonged to him, & when asked by CIT(A), AO failed to identify the alleged transactions or produce supporting bank statements.
Tribunal noted that CIT(A)’s factual findings had not been dislodged by Revenue. Since AO could neither dispute the source of land investment nor substantiate the ITS data-based addition, both deletions by CIT(A) were justified. Accordingly, ITAT dismissed the Revenue’s appeal & upheld the order of CIT(A).
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT RANCHI
1. This is an appeal filed by the revenue against the order of the ld. CIT(A), Patna-3, Patna in Appeal CIT(A),Patna-3/11251/2014-15 dated 30/11/2023 for the A.Y. 2015-16.
