COURT: | Gujarat High Court |
CORAM: | B. N. Karia J, M. R. Shah J |
SECTION(S): | 220(6) |
GENRE: | Domestic Tax |
CATCH WORDS: | CBDT Circular dated 29.2.2016, stay of demand |
COUNSEL: | B. S. Soparkar |
DATE: | March 28, 2017 (Date of pronouncement) |
DATE: | May 1, 2017 (Date of publication) |
AY: | - |
FILE: | Click here to view full post with file download link |
CITATION: | |
S. 220(6): CBDT's instruction dated 29.02.2016 on stay of demand by the AO does not require the assessee to make a pre-deposit of 15% of the disputed demand. As per the Instruction, if the AO requires the assessee to pay less, or more, than 15% of the demand, the sanction of the Pr. CIT is required. If the AO demands 15% to be paid, the assessee is entitled to approach the Pr CIT for review of the AO's decision |
The interpretation by the Assessing Officer that at the time of submitting stay application and/or before stay application is taken up for consideration on merits, the assessee is required to deposit 15% of the disputed demand as pre-deposit is absolutely based on misinterpretation and/or misreading of the modified Instructions dated 29th February 2016. What Clause-4 provides is that the Assessing Officer may/shall grant stay of demand till disposal of first appeal on payment of 15% of the disputed demand, unless the case falls in the category mentioned in para 4 [B] of the modified instructions dated 29th February 2016. Under the circumstances, the impugned decision of the respondent no. 2 in rejecting the stay application and consequently directing the petitioner to deposit 100% of the disputed demand on the ground that the petitioner has not deposited 15% of the disputed demand as a pre-deposit before his application for stay is considered on merits cannot be sustained and the same deserves to be quashed and set-aside
Recent Comments