| COURT: | Bombay High Court |
| CORAM: | A. K. Menon J., M. S. Sanklecha J |
| SECTION(S): | 260A, 92 |
| GENRE: | Domestic Tax, Transfer Pricing |
| CATCH WORDS: | strictures |
| COUNSEL: | Dr. K. Shivram |
| DATE: | May 6, 2016 (Date of pronouncement) |
| DATE: | May 16, 2016 (Date of publication) |
| AY: | - |
| FILE: | Click here to download the file in pdf format |
| CITATION: | |
| Transfer Pricing: High Court irked at fact that Dept is unaware of which of its matters are admitted/ dismissed. Chief CIT directed to streamline the procedure for filing appeal before the High Court. Adjustment can be made only for transactions attributable to the International taxation | |
When the matter came up for hearing the Hon’ble Court observed that in few of the matters the appeal of the revenue on the above issue were dismissed after considering the detailed arguments of the assessee and the revenue. The said orders of the Bombay High Court were also accepted by the revenue. The Hon’ble court also observed that similar matter was decided in favour of the assessee by the Delhi High Court. However, in one of the matter the issue was admitted by the Bombay High Court by an exparte order which was not brought to the notice of the Hon’ble High Court. To avoid such an inconsistent stand of the revenue, the Hon’ble Court directed the Principal Chief Commissioner to stream line the procedure to be followed for filing an appeal to the High Court and to bring transparency. In pursuance to the said direction of the Hon’ble High Court, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income tax filed an affidavit before the Court on 5/5/2016, wherein he has informed that he has constituted the committee of Chief Commissioners on 3/5/2016 (Refer copy enclosed). Principal Chief Commissioner in his affidavit stated that web site www.incometaxgovin it has been decided to add a legal corner on the web site where all questions of law admitted, dismissed by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court will be hosted. The access to the web site will be provided to all concerned for easy reference where the questions of law would be bunched section wise. Expert committee will meet every week and decision pronounced by the Bombay High Court will be discussed and appropriate action will be taken (Refer Affidavit). Hon’ble High Court also agreed with the suggestion of Dr. K. Shivaram, Sr. Advocate that the legal corner on the web site should also indicate whether the question of law formulated by the Revenue was rejected and the same has been accepted by the Income tax Dept. The counsel for the revenue stated that on instruction from the Principal Chief Commissioner the web site will be functional by 15/6/2016.
obviously the said website is yet to be functional till 15/6/2016.
This is right situation for issuing to the revenue necessary contempt of court Notice, i believe;
as the revenue men is already half knowledgeable of their own statutes but yet assume that they are experts and simply distribute under all kinds of sections; many is obviously for obvious reasons as conduits are many functioning at the corridors of the revenue.
good dr shivram’s view was well received by the court, congrats doctor.
regds.
Sir, it is not clear why Pr CCIT, Mumbai is planning to operationalize another website by 15/6/2016 for this purpose when the following note on National Judicial Reference System of Income Tax Department makes clear that NJRS is becoming operational and beta version has been released in 2015. Duplication should be avoided as public money will be wasted . “National Judicial Reference System
The National Judicial Reference System (NJRS) is a project of Indian Income Tax Department to streamline its tax litigation system. NJRS aims to be a comprehensive repository of all Appeals and Judgments related to Direct Taxes in India. The Income Tax Department is the largest litigant in India and NJRS will help the department in decongesting and streamlining the huge backlog of litigation in various courts and Tribunals related to direct tax cases. A limited edition of the portal (beta version) was launched in March 2015. Full and public internationalization of the portal is in progress. The portal will enable the department to monitor appeals progress through the appeal stages, undertake policy analysis for issues leading to rising litigation and do research for strengthening their cases by taking reference from previous orders made by the courts tax appeals.” CBDT may look into this and knee jerk reactions at local level are to be avoided.
Dated: 31.05.2016
Shri Atulesh Jindal IRS,
Chairman – Central Board of Direct Taxes
Government of India, Ministry of Finance,
Department of Revenue, North Block,
New Delhi – 110 001
Dear Sir,
Sub: Reducing income tax litigations – Bombay High Court’s direction – Need for time bound compliance
I attach a copy of the order of the Bombay High Court dated 6th May, 2016 in CIT v. TCL India Holdings Ltd in ITA No. 2287 of 2013 wherein, in para-5, the counsel for the Revenue has given an undertaking to the Court that the Income-tax Department will add a “Legal Corner” on its website where all questions of law admitted or dismissed by the Bombay High Court (presumably other High Courts also) will be entered section-wise.
2. Dr. K Shivram, Senior Advocate representing the respondent assessee, suggested that the Legal Corner should also indicate whether the judgment of the High Court rejecting the Revenue’s question of law was accepted by the Income-tax Department. His suggestion was accepted by the Hon’ble Court.
3. The Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax, Mumbai, as per para-10, was directed to file an affidavit on or before 13th June, 2016 desiring the Government’s decision on the various suggestions in finalizing the format of the Legal Corner.
4. We have been making suggestion similar to one made by Dr Shivram before various other fora. I, as the then Chairman of the Direct Taxes Representation Committee of All India Federation of Tax Practitioners, suggested before the Tax Administration Reforms Commission that CBDT’s decision on every judgement of the High Court on a question of law should be made available to the Departmental Officers as also the taxpayers so as bring about certainty and substantially cut down tax litigation.
5. Our suggestion was accepted and a recommendation to this effect was made by the Commission. It appears the CBDT have also accepted this suggestion. In fact, your Ld. predecessor Smt. Anita Kapur, presumably to know about the past practice on this important issue, had desired me to send a copy of the CBDT’s Quarterly Bulletin on Direct Taxes where Board’s decision on every judgement of the High Court used to be made available every quarter not only to the Departmental officers but also to the tax paying public at large. (This practice was discontinued sometimes in the late 1960’s). In compliance with her desire, I personally handed over one old copy of the Bulletin, which was preserved by me even after my retirement, to the Deputy Secretary ITA-1 of the CBDT.
6. Since this matter seems to be under the active consideration of the Board for quite some time, we shall be grateful if the “Legal Corner” on the website of the Income tax Department becomes functional at the earliest and brought to the notice of the Bombay High Court.
7. While the Hon’ble Bombay High Court has to be apprised of the same by the 13th June, 2016, I may also be informed of the same so that we can, in turn, give the widest publicity through the All India Federation of Tax Practitioners, which is perhaps the largest body in India representing the lawyers, Chartered Accountants and tax practitioners both on the direct and indirect taxes.
With my best wishes and warm regards
Yours faithfully,
S.R. Wadhwa
Encl: As above