The assessee became liable to pay “penalty” for overloading wagons under the rules of the Railways. The question arose whether the said “penalty” was disallowable under the Explanation to s. 37 (1) which provides that “expenditure incurred for any purpose which is an offence or which is prohibited by law” shall not be allowable. HELD, deciding in favour of the assessee:

The substance of the matter had to be looked into and given preference over the form. Though the amount was termed “penalty”, it was essentially of a commercial nature and incurred in the normal course of business and was consequently allowable.

Expl. (baa) to S. 80HHC defines the term “profits of the business” to mean the profits under the head “profits and gains” as reduced by 90% of the sum referred to in s. 28 (iiid). The 2nd & 3rd Provisos to s. 80HHC (3) provide that the profits computed there under shall be increased by the said 90% amount computed in the proportion of export turnover to total turnover. S. 28 (iiid) refers to “any profit on the transfer of the Duty Entitlement Pass Book Scheme (‘DEPB’)”. The Special Bench had to consider whether the entire amount received on sale of DEPB entitlements represents ‘profits’ chargeable u/s 28 (iiid) or the profit referred to therein requires any artificial cost to be imputed. HELD deciding in favour of the assessee: only the “profit” (i.e. the sale value less the face value) is required to be considered for purposes of s. 80HHC.

In Rajendra Prasad Moody 115 ITR 522 the Supreme Court held that interest on monies borrowed for purchase of shares was allowable as a deduction u/s 57 (iii) irrespective of whether or not there is any yield of dividend to the assessee. It was held that the words “expenditure incurred for making or earning the income” in s. 57 (iii) did not mean that income actually had to be earned for the allowability of the expenditure. The converse of this principle is now applicable. i.e. s. 14A disallows expenditure “in relation to income which does not form part of total income” and in order for the expenditure to be disallowed, actual income need not be earned

It is beyond comprehension how expenditure incurred on the project itself can be disallowed on the ground that it was incurred prior to setting up the project office. When computing the income of the project as a whole including that part which relates to the period anterior to the setting up of the project office, there can be no question of not allowing such expenditure which is relatable to the period prior to the setting up of the project. If the expenditure is identifiable with the project, it has to be allowed as a deduction under the matching concept.

The fact that the proviso to s. 112 uses the words ‘before giving effect to the second proviso to s. 48’ does not mean that the benefit of the lower rate can be given only to those cases eligible for the indexation benefit. Even non-residents who are not eligible for indexation are eligible for the lower rate of 10%.