No Penalty can be imposed if Assessee Proves there was Reasonable cause for Delay in Filing Books of Account u/s 273B of Income Tax Act: ITAT [Read Order]

The Kolkata bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) held that no penalty can be imposed if the assessee proves that there was a reasonable cause for delay in filing books of account under section 273B of the Income Tax Act,1961. 

Amit Kumar Chatterjee, the appellant assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) for confirming the imposition of penalty made by the assessing officer under section 273B of the Income Tax Act. 

Anil Kochar, the counsel for the assessee contended that the books of accounts of the assessee come under the purview of audit under section 44AB of the Income Tax Act and the assessee was required to submit the report before filing the return of income and the assessee uploaded the audit report with a delay of one day by the assessee. 

It was further submitted that due to technical problem reports the audit report was not uploaded as there was a heavy load on the income tax portal. 

Vijay Kumar, the counsel for the revenue relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the assessing officer levied a penalty under section 271B of the Income Tax Act for failure to get the books of accounts audited since the assessee did not file an audit report before the due date of filing of return of income. 

The bench observed that the provisions of section 273B of the Income Tax Act which provides that the penalty is not to be imposed in a case if the assessee proves that there was a reasonable cause for the delay in filing an audit report by the assessee and are liable to be deleted. 

The two-member bench comprising Manish Borad (Accountant) and Sonjoy Sarma (Judicial) held that the penalty levied under section 273B of the Income Tax Act was not as per the law and deleted the penalty while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee. 

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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