TRIMURTHI FINVEST LTD.,INDORE V. ACIT CIRCLE 1(1), BILASPUR

ITA 254/RPR/2024

AI Insights

The case involves Trimurthi Finvest Ltd. and Purvi Finvest Ltd., both non-banking financial corporations engaged in providing unsecured loans and trading in shares. The Assessing Officer issued statutory notices under section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act during the scrutiny assessments for the assessment years 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20. The assessee failed to comply with these notices, leading to penalties under section 272A(1)(d) of the Act. The assessee appealed against these penalties, but remained non-compliant during the appellate proceedings as well. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) upheld the penalties, which were then challenged in the Tribunal. The Tribunal found no merit in the assessee's arguments and upheld the penalties, citing the assessee's persistent non-compliance and absence of reasonable cause for not adhering to the statutory notices.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 106835 (ITAT-RAIPUR)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 28-02-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Dismissed
• Bench Allotted: DB
• Assessment Year: 2017-2018
• Laws Referred To: Income Tax Act
• Result in Favour of: Revenue
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Department Lawyers: S.L.ANURAGI; PRIYANKA
• Assessee Lawyers: HARSH VIJAYVARGIYA
• Keywords: Reasonable cause; Principle of natural justice
• Section: 143(3); 142(1); 274; 273B; 272A

Judgement Text

"आयकर अपीलीय अिधकरण, रायपुर Ɋायपीठ, रायपुर IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL RAIPUR BENCH, RAIPUR ŵी रिवश सूद, Ɋाियक सद˟ एवं ŵी अŜण खोड़िपया, लेखा सद˟ क े समƗ । BEFORE SHRI RAVISH SOOD, JM & SHRI ARUN KHODPIA, AM आयकर अपील सं. / ITA Nos: 254, 256, 258/RPR/2024 (िनधाŊरण वषŊ Assessment Year: 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20) Trimurthi Finvest Ltd., 552-B, Usha Nagar, Annapurna Road, Indore-452009 V s Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Circle-1(1), Bilaspur-495001 PAN: AAACT6383N आयकर अपील सं. / ITA No: 268/RPR/2024 (िनधाŊरण वषŊ Assessment Year: 2018-19) Purvi Finvest Ltd. 552-B, Usha Nagar, Annapurna Road, Indore-452009 V s Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Circle, Bilaspur-495001 PAN: AABCP6564C (अपीलाथŎ/Appellant) . . (ŮȑथŎ / Respondent) िनधाŊįरती की ओर से /Assessee by : Shri Harsh Vijayvargiya, CA राजˢ की ओर से /Revenue by : Shri S. L. Anuragi, CIT-DR & Dr. Priyanka Patel, Sr. DR सुनवाई की तारीख / Date of Hearing : 11.02.2025 घोषणा की तारीख/Date of Pronouncement : 28.02.2025 आदेश / O R D E R Per Arun Khodpia, AM: The captioned appeals are filed by the assessee against the respective orders of Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Raipur-3, which in turn arises from the respective orders passed by the Assessing Officers. The 2 ITA No. 254, 256, 258 & 268/RPR/2024 Trimurthi Finvest Ltd. and Purvi Finvest Ltd. details of impugned assessment orders and appellate order passed in the aforesaid cases of the assessee’s are as under: Trimurthi Finvest Ltd. ITA No. AY Date of AO’s order Date of CIT(A)’s order U/s Amount of penalty imposed ITA 254/RPR/2024 2017-18 21.11.2019 20.02.2024 272A 10000 ITA 256/RPR/2024 2018-19 23.03.2022 20.02.2024 272A 20000 ITA 258/RPR/2024 2019-20 23.03.2022 20.02.2024 272A 20000 Purvi Finvest Ltd. ITA 268/RPR/2024 2018-19 31.03.2022 20.02.2024 272A 30000 2. Briefly stated, the assessee companies, which are registered as a non- banking financial corporation, mainly dealing in the business of providing unsecured loan / advances and trading in shares and security. The scrutiny assessments of the assessee companies for the aforesaid AY’s are completed u/s 143(3) / 144 of the Income Tax Act (in short “the Act”). During the assessment proceedings, the statutory notice u/s 142(1) were issued, however, the assessee had failed to comply against such notices further when the penalty proceedings u/s 272A(1)(d) of the Act are initiated, the assessee has neither attended nor filed any adjournment before the Ld. AO. Accordingly, the penalties for non-compliance / non-prosecution, as detailed hereinabove are imposed. 3 ITA No. 254, 256, 258 & 268/RPR/2024 Trimurthi Finvest Ltd. and Purvi Finvest Ltd. 3. Aggrieved with the aforesaid penalty orders, assessee preferred an appeal before the First Appellate Authority, however, remain absent before the Ld. CIT(A), even no written explanations are furnished before the First Appellate Authority. Under such circumstances, Ld. CIT(A) confirmed the amounts of penalties imposed by the Ld. AO. The observations of Ld. CIT(A) are identical in all the aforesaid cases, therefore, for the sake of clarity observations in ITA No. 254/RPR/2024 are culled out for the sake of clarity and deliberations: 4 ITA No. 254, 256, 258 & 268/RPR/2024 Trimurthi Finvest Ltd. and Purvi Finvest Ltd. 5 ITA No. 254, 256, 258 & 268/RPR/2024 Trimurthi Finvest Ltd. and Purvi Finvest Ltd. 4. Before us, Shri Harsh Vijayvargiya, CA, Authorized Representative of the assessee (in short “Ld. AR”), had not expressed any clarification for non-compliance before both the revenue authorities, however, he reiterated the grounds of appeal and stated that the penalties are imposed without affording opportunities of being heard against the principle of natural justice, therefore, the same are arbitrary and illegal, thus, needs to be deleted. 5. Per contra, Shri S. L. Anuragi, CIT-DR and Dr. Priyanka Patel, Sr. DR representing the revenue placed their strong reliance on the orders of revenue authorities and requested to uphold the same, as the assessee’s conduct before the both the authorities was evasive and that of a persistent non-compliant, therefore, the penalties imposed are well as per the mandate of law, deserves to be sustained. 6. We have considered the rival submissions and have perused the material available on record. After hearing from both the parties, we find that the assessee remains non attentive, non-compliant and absent towards the notices issued u/s 142(1) by the Ld. AO, further during the penalty proceedings also while the show cause notices issued u/s 274 r.w.s. 272A(1)(d) of the Act were issued and duly served upon the 6 ITA No. 254, 256, 258 & 268/RPR/2024 Trimurthi Finvest Ltd. and Purvi Finvest Ltd. assessee, are not complied with on or before the scheduled date of hearing. Under such facts and circumstances, wherein despite reasonable opportunities of being heard are afforded to the assessee, it remains careless and failed in furnishing the explanations qua the penalty proceedings initiated u/s 272A(1)(d) of the Act, we, thus, concur with the findings of Ld. CIT(A) in his impugned orders and rightly so in observing that the appellant has not submitted any evidence or furnished any cogent reasons for not complying with the statutory notices u/s 142(1) of the Act, within the meaning of section 273B of the Act to substantiate that there was reasonable cause for the said failure. Considering in totality, we are of the considered opinion that in absence of any explanation by the assessee, Ld. CIT(A) had rightly upheld the penalty imposed by the Ld. AO u/s 272A of the Act. 7. In result, ITA No. 254, 256, 258/RPR/2024 in the case of Trimurthi Finvest Ltd. and ITA No. 268/RPR/2024 in the case of Purvi Finvest Ltd., are rendered as dismissed, in terms of our aforesaid observations. 7 ITA No. 254, 256, 258 & 268/RPR/2024 Trimurthi Finvest Ltd. and Purvi Finvest Ltd. Order pronounced in the open court on 28/02/2025. Sd/- (RAVISH SOOD) Sd/- (ARUN KHODPIA) Ɋाियक सद˟ / JUDICIAL MEMBER लेखा सद˟ / ACCOUNTANT MEMBER रायपुर/Raipur; िदनांक Dated 28/02/2025 Vaibhav Shrivastav आदेश की Ůितिलिप अŤेिषत/Copy of the Order forwarded to : आदेशानुसार/ BY ORDER, (Senior Private Secretary) आयकर अपीलीय अिधकरण, रायपुर/ITAT, Raipur 1. अपीलाथŎ / The Appellant- Trimurti Finvest Ltd. & Purvi Finvest Ltd., Indore 2. ŮȑथŎ / The Respondent- ACIT, Circle-1(1) & Central Circle, Bilaspur 3. The Pr. CIT, Raipur (C.G.) 4. िवभागीय Ůितिनिध, आयकर अपीलीय अिधकरण, रायपुर/ DR, ITAT, Raipur 5. गाडŊ फाईल / Guard file. // सȑािपत Ůित True copy // "