Alleged involvement in Money Laundering of Beneficiary of Bogus Entities with undeclared Income u/s 68: ITAT grants Final Opportunity [Read Order]

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Surat Bench, granted a final opportunity of being heard in a case where the assessee had been allegedly involved in money laundering. It had also been decided that the assessee was a beneficiary of bogus entities with undeclared income under Section 68 of the Income TaxAct, 1961.

The facts of the case are that the assessee, Manbhawan Exim Pvt. Ltd., was a beneficiary of bogus entities as per the information from Investigation Wing and was involved in alleged money laundering. During re-assessment proceedings, the assessee submitted documents which resulted in the addition of bogus purchase and bogus sales under Section 69C and 68 of the Act.

The assessee appealed before the CIT(A) against this reassessment order. Despite seven opportunities to respond, the assessee-appellant only filed partial response. The CIT(A) confirmed the additions made by the Assessing Officer (AO) and dismissed the appeal.

The counsel for the assessee appealed before the ITAT pleading that if one more opportunity could be given for hearing, then they would be able to file all necessary details and documents. The opposing counsel strongly opposed this and requested for confirmation of orders of the lower authorities.

ITAT noted the partial compliance and appropriated a cost of Rs. 5000 for each of the three Financial Years in consideration. The bench of Narendra Prasan Sinha (Accountant Member) and T. R. Senthil Kumar (Judicial Member) restored the appeals to the file of the CIT(A) stating that the final opportunity should be given to the assessee to produce all necessary details and evidences.

The appeal was accordingly allowed for statistical purposes.

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