Supreme Court: The bench of UU Lalit and S. Ravindra Bhat*, JJ has held that the declaration under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) cannot lead to immunity from taxation in the hands of a non-declarant.
The Court explained that the objective of Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), introduced by Chapter IX of the Finance Act, 2016, was to enable an assessee to declare her (or his) suppressed undisclosed income or properties acquired through such income. It is based on voluntary disclosure of untaxed income and the assessee’s acknowledging income tax liability. This disclosure is through a declaration (Section 183 of the Income Tax Act) to the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax within a time period, and deposit the prescribed amount towards income tax and other stipulated amounts, including penalty.
Facially, Section 192 of the Income Tax Act affords immunity to the declarant: “…nothing contained in any declaration made under section 183 shall be admissible in evidence against the declarant for the purpose of any proceeding relating to imposition of penalty…” Therefore, the protection given, is to the declarant, and for a limited purpose.
The assessee, in the case at hand, is a private limited company and had filed return of income for the AY 2010-11 on 25.9.2010. The return was accepted under section 143(1) of the Act without scrutiny.
The assessment was re-opened after search proceedings conducted in the case of one Shirish Chandrakant Shah, an accommodation entry provider in Mumbai, it was observed that huge amounts of unaccounted moneys of promoters/directors were introduced in closely held companies of the assessee’s group.
Further, the reasons to believe also stated that the chairman of M.R. Shah Group, during the statement- recorded under Section 132(4), disclosed that Garg Logistics Pvt. Ltd. had declared ₹ 6.36 crores as undisclosed cash utilized for investment in the share capital of the assessee, M.R. Shah Logistics Pvt. Ltd. through various companies. The assessee company’s chairman voluntarily disclosed the statements made by Garg Logistics under Section 132 of the Act, about the declaration by Garg Logistics P Ltd, under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS).
It can be seen that in the present case, the declarant was Garg Logistic Pvt Ltd and not the assessee. The Court, hence, held that the assessee could not claim immunity in the present case.
[Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax v. M. R. Shah Logistics Pvt. Ltd., 2022 SCC OnLine SC 365, decided on 28.03.2022]
*Judgment by: Justice S. Ravindra Bhat
For Assessee: Advocate Guru Krishnakumar