The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ruled in favor of the assessee and quashed the reassessment proceedings and granted the Tax Exemption.
The appeal by assessee for Assessment Year (AY) 2015-16 arises out of final assessment order passed by Assessing Officer, [AO] u/s.143(3) r.w.s 147 r.w.s 144C(13) of the Act on 27-01-2023 pursuant to the directions of Ld. Dispute Resolution Panel-2, Bengaluru u/s 144C(5) dated 14-11-2022. The appeal is accompanied by stay application wherein the assessee is seeking stay of recovery of outstanding demand by the revenue.
The division bench of Mahavir Singh, Vice President And Manoj Kumar Aggarwal, Accountant Member noted that the undisputed position that emerges is that the assessee assailed the final assessment order for AYs 2012-13, 2013-14, 2016-17 & 2017- 18 before this Tribunal wherein the appeals have been allowed by the Tribunal on legal grounds as well as on merits.
Upon perusal of case records and after considering the cited decision of Tribunal, the bench concurred with the submission of AR that the issue on legal grounds as well as on merits is covered in assessee’s favor and there is no change in material facts. The bench, in paras 11 to 16 of the order, has held that the reassessment proceedings as well as consequential assessment framed therein are unsustainable in law and accordingly, liable to be quashed. The issue, on merits, has been dealt with by the bench in paras 17 to 28 of the order. It has finally been held that the assessee would be entitled for the benefit of Article-8 of the treaty and the impugned charges would not be taxable in India in the hands of the assessee.
Therefore, facts and circumstances being the same, taking the same view, the Tribunal allowed the legal grounds as well as grounds on merits.
The tribunal directed the AO to re-compute the income of the assessee and allow credit of taxes in accordance with law.
Case title: M/s. Bengal Tiger Line Pte.Ltd. v/s DCIT
Citation: ITA No.316/Chny/2023
