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Showing contexts for: external development in Ito Ward-77(3), New Delhi vs Sterling Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd., New ... on 22 November, 2023Matching Fragments
3. Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, the CIT(A) was justified in not appreciating the fact that judgments relied upon by the Ld.CIT(A) are of no avail in the present case as subject matter of appeal in those cases before the Hon'ble Tibunal was penalty order u/s. 271C of the I.T. Act.
4. Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, the CIT(A) was justified in not appreciating the fact that decision of Hon'ble ITAT in the judgments relied upon that the assesse was not liable to deduct tax at source on External Development Charges (EDC) is in contravention to CBDT's Office Memorandum vide F.No. 370133/37/2017-TPL dated 23.12.2017, wherein it has been clearly mentioned that the TDS provisions would be applicable on EDC payable to HUDA.
5. That the order of the CIT(A) being erroneous in law and on facts and needs to be vacated.
6. That the appellant craves leave to add or amend any one or more of the grounds of the appeal as stated above as and when need for doing so may arise."
2. Facts giving rise to the present appeal are that the AO carried out a survey/inspection u/s 133A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act"), at the premises of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and Sky High Land Con Pvt. Ltd. by the TDS Wing . It was noticed during the survey that External Development charges (EDC) were received by HUDA from private builders/persons without TDS. It was noticed that the assessee company also had made payments of EDC charges to HUDA in different years and no tax was deducted. Therefore, notice was issued to the assessee. After considering the submissions of the assessee the AO treated the assessee in default u/s 201(1) of the Act and made addition in respect of default u/s 201(1) at Rs. 1,17,76,900/- and interest u/s 201(1A) of Rs. 1,05,66,527/-. Thus, raised a demand of Rs.
"7. The Co-ordinate Benches in M/s. Perfect Constech P. Ltd. case and ITA No. 5805, 5806, 5349/Del/2019 title of the case RPS Infrastructure Ltd. vs. ACIT have held that assessee was not required to deduct tax at source at the time of payment of EDC. 7.1 As for convenience the relevant findings at para no. 5 in M/s. Perfect Constech Pvt. Ltd (supra) is reproduced;
"5. We have heard the rival submissions and have also 13 ITA no. 9282/Del/2019 perused the material on record. It is seen that in Para 4.3.2, subparagraph (iv) of the order passed u/s 271C of the Act, the LD.AO has himself noted that the demand draft of the EDC amounts are drawn in favour of the Chief Administrator, HUDA though routed through the Director General, Town and Country Planning, Sector-18, Chandigarh. He has also referred to the notes to accounts to the financial statements of HUDA wherein it has been stated that "other liabilities also include external development charges received through DGTCP, Department of Haryana for execution of various EDC works. The expenditure against which have been booked in Development Work in Progress, Enhancement compensation and Land cost."
Undisputedly, the payment of EDC was issued in the name of Chief Administrator, HUDA. It is also not in dispute that HUDA has shown EDC as current liability in the balance sheet, but in the "Notes" to the Accounts Forming part of the Balance Sheet, it has been shown that EDC has been received for execution of various external development works and as and when the development works are carried out, the EDC"s liabilities are reduced accordingly. It is also not in dispute that HUDA is engaged in acquiring land, developing it and finally handing it over for a price. It is also not in dispute that EDC is fixed by HUDA from time to time. However, the fact of the matter remains that payment has been made to HUDA through DTCP which is a Government Department and the same is not in pursuance to any contract between the assessee and HUDA. Thus, the payment of EDC is not for carrying out any specific work to be done by HUDA for and on behalf of the assessee but rather DTCP which is a Government Department which levies these charges for carrying out external development and engages the services of HUDA for execution of the work. Therefore, it is our considered view that the assessee was not required to deduct tax at source at the time of payment of EDC as the same was not out of any statutory or contractual liability towards HUDA and, therefore, the impugned penalty was not leviable. We note that similar view has been taken by the Coordinate Benches of ITAT Delhi in the cases of Santur Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. vs. ACIT in ITA 6844/Del/2019 vide order dated 18.12.2019, Sarv Estate Pvt. Ltd. vs. JCIT in ITA No.5337 & 5338/Del/2019 14 ITA no. 9282/Del/2019 vide order dated 13.09.2019 and Shiv Sai Infrastructure (Pvt.) Ltd. vs. ACIT in ITA No.5713/Dei/2019 vide order dated 11.09.2019. A similar view was also taken by the Coordinate Bench of ITAT Delhi in case of R.PS Infrastructure Ltd. vs. ACIT in 5805, 5806 & 5349/Del/2019 vide order dated 23.07.2019. Therefore, on an identical facts and respectfully following the orders of the Co-ordinate Benches as aforesaid, we hold that the impugned penalty u/s 271C of the Act is not sustainable. The order of the Ld. CIT (A) is set aside and the penalty is directed to be deleted."