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It is found that surrender was made subject to no penalty vide letter of the assessee filed before the Assessing Officer during assessment proceedings, which clearly indicate that surrender was being made with a condition that no penal action will be made and to avoid further litigation and to buy peace and jurisdictional High Court decisions in the case of CIT v. Saran Khandsari Sugar Works [2000] 246 ITR 216/[2002] 120 Taxman 319 (All.) and CIT v. Mansa Ram & Sons [1977] 106 ITR 307 (All.) were in favour of the assessee and Commissioner (Appeals) has followed these decisions while deleting the impugned penalty. Moreover, department has not been able to bring on record any contrary superior Courts decisions in this regard. Therefore, there is no valid ground to interfere in the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) which is upheld and appeal of the department is dismissed being devoid of any merit. As a result, the appeal of the department is dismissed.
In the present case, the income computed as per the normal procedure was less than the income determined by legal fiction namely book profits under Section 115JB of the Act.
Mere erroneous claim in the absence of any concealment or furnishing of inaccurate particulars, is no ground for levying penalty, especially when there is nothing on record to show that the explanation offered by the assessee was not bona fide or any material particulars were concealed or furnished inaccurate .
The law stands very well settled by the Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of CIT vs. Reliance Petroproducts (P.) Ltd., (supra) that merely disallowing a claim of deduction raised by the assessee is not a ground to proceed u/s 271(1)(c). For penalty, it has to be either a case of furnishing of inaccurate particulars, concealment of income or at least the claim should have been proved to be a mala-fide one. In our considered opinion, the said eventualities do not exist in instant case. Therefore, the penalty in question does not hold ground.
Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of CIT vs Reliance Petro Products Pvt. Ltd reported in 322 ITR 0158(SC). has clearly held that the return of income is the only document where the assessee can furnish his particulars of income, where as in the instant appeal, the appellant company has not disclosed the receipt of premium received on renunciation of rights in its return of income nor in the computation of income accompanied with the return of income. So penalty for Concealment of Income is imposable U/s. 271(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Where no information given in the return is found to be incorrect or inaccurate, the assessee cannot be held guilty of furnishing inaccurate particulars. In order to expose the assessee to penalty, unless the case is strictly covered by the provision, the penalty provision cannot be invoked. By no stretch of imagination can making an incorrect claim tantamount to furnishing inaccurate particulars. There can be no dispute that everything would depend upon the return filed by the assessee, because that is the only document where the assessee can furnish the particulars of his income. When such particulars are found to be inaccurate, the liability would arise. To attract penalty, the details supplied in the return must not be accurate, not exact or correct, not according to the truth or erroneous.
The Return of Income filed pursuant to a notice notice U/s. 148 is not ‘voluntary’ & it can be readily inferred that the assessee had not furnished full particulars of his true income and so reopening became necessary. The explanation that the income was offered to buy peace is not acceptable because it is a clear case of admission of not offering true income earlier.
There is no finding recorded by assessing officer that any details supplied by the assessee in its return were found to be incorrect or erroneous or false. A mere making of the claim, which is not sustainable in law, by itself, will not amount to furnishing inaccurate particulars regarding the income of the assessee. Such claim made in the return cannot amount to the inaccurate particulars.
Indisputably, the ld. CIT(A) considered additional material in relation to two comparables and that of the assessee, which was not available before the TPO/AO. Apparently, the ld. CIT(A) did not follow the procedure laid down under Rule 46A of the IT Rules,1962 nor allowed any opportunity to the AO. The powers of the CIT(A) to admit additional evidence are not only in situations where the evidence could not be produced before lower authorities owing to lack of adequate opportunity but also in situations where the fresh evidence would enable the CIT(A) to dispose of the appeal or for any other substantial cause.
The admitted position is that the amount of Rs.30,63,310/- was shown by her in the return. That being the position, it cannot be said that there was any concealment. There is no dispute about the fact that the amount was correctly mentioned and therefore, there is also nothing inaccurate in the particulars furnished by her.
