Thursday, June 26, 2014

AO is to abide by SetCom's order; he can only raise consequential demand to give effect to same, says HC


The Assessing Officer cannot go beyond order passed by Settlement Commission and he could only raise a consequential demand while giving effect to order passed by Settlement Commission.

Facts:


a)The assessee-company filed the Settlement application. The Settlement Commission (‘SetCom’) passed the final order on the issues raised by the assessee.

b)The Assessing Officer (‘AO’) had calculated tax and interest payable by assessee after giving effect to the order passed by the SetCom. The assessee disputed period of interest under section 220(2) and submitted the miscellaneous application before SetCom which was rejected by it.

c)Thereafter, the assessee submitted the application under section 154 before the AO which was dismissed by him.

d)Further, the appeal filed before the CIT(A) and ITAT were dismissed. The aggrieved-assessee filed the instant appeal.

The High Court held in favour of revenue as under:

1)It was not in dispute that the Assessing Officer originally passed the order considering the order passed by the Settlement Commission under section 245D(4). Therefore, as such the Assessing Officer had given effect to the order passed by the SetCom.

2)The AO could not go beyond the order passed by the SetCom and he could only raise a consequential demand after giving effect to the order passed by the SetCom under section 245D(4).

3)Thus, no substantial question of law arose in the instant case. Hence, the instant case was to be dismissed.- MAHAVIR ROLLING MILL (P.) LTD. V. ITO [2014] 45 taxmann.com 431 (Gujarat)