| COURT: | ITAT Pune |
| CORAM: | G. S. Pannu (AM), R. S. Padvekar (JM) |
| SECTION(S): | 40(a)(ia), 80-IB(10) |
| GENRE: | Domestic Tax |
| CATCH WORDS: | Housing Project, TDS disallowance |
| COUNSEL: | S. K. Tyagi |
| DATE: | December 31, 2014 (Date of pronouncement) |
| DATE: | January 7, 2015 (Date of publication) |
| AY: | 2009-10 |
| FILE: | Click here to download the file in pdf format |
| CITATION: | |
| (i) S. 40(a)(ia) disallowance cannot be made if the assessee has not claimed a deduction. (ii) S. 80-IB(10) deduction cannot be denied on the ground that the completion certificate has not been issued by the Municipality if the assessee has completed construction before the due date | |
(i) The insistence of the Revenue to say that the amount has been paid in this year and therefore it is covered within the prescription of section 40(a)(i) of the Act is quite otiose to the requirements of section 40(a)(i) of the Act. There is no dispute to the proposition that the said payment has not been claimed as a revenue expenditure while computing the income chargeable under the head ‘Profits and gains of business or profession’ in this year and therefore the same would not fall for consideration in section 40(a)(i) of the Act.
(ii) Explanation (ii) to section 80IB(10)(a) of the Act prescribes that the date of completion of construction of the housing project shall be taken to be the date on which the completion certificate in respect of such housing project is issued by the local authority. In the present case, the local authority, i.e. Pune Municipal Corporation has not issued the requisite completion certificate (to be understood as occupancy certificate in the context of the PMC) before the stipulated date. However, the assessee has countered the aforesaid objection by pointing out that in-fact it has completed the construction of the project on 04-12-2007 i.e. much before the stipulated date of completion contained in section 80IB(10)(a) of the Act, it had applied to the PMC for obtaining of the occupancy certificate based on the certificate of the architect and the other NOCs required for the said purpose. The CIT(A) has also called for information u/s.133(6) of the Act from the PMC and its response did not reveal any objection on the part of the PMC that the construction was not complete with respect to the sanctioned plans. Therefore, factually speaking, there is no controversion to the assertions of the assessee that it’s project was otherwise complete as per the sanctioned plans within the stipulated date. In this background, in our view, the CIT(A) made no mistake in allowing the claim of the assessee and her approach is not only consistent with the decision of the Pune Bench of the Tribunal in the case of Satish Bora and Associates (supra) but it is also in line with the judgement of the Hon’ble Gujarat High Court in the case of CIT vs. Tarnetar Corporation, (2014) 362 ITR 174 (Guj).
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