- (1.) LEAVE granted.
(2.) THIS Civil Appeal is filed by the Department against the judgment of the Gujarat high Court in Tax Appeal No. 203 of 2006. The short question which arose for determination before the High Court was : whether the respondent assessee was entitled to depreciation at the rate of 40% on trailers and loaders? Briefly, the facts are as follows : the assessee is a private limited company engaged in the business of importing timber logs from abroad and selling them in India. During the previous year relevant to the Assessment Year 1998-99, the respondent assessee had purchased trailers and loaders and put them to use on hire. The Assessment Officer (AO) took the view that the assessee was, during the relevant assessment year, in the business of timber trading and it is only occasionally that the trucks owned by the assessee were given out on hire to outside parties and, therefore, the assessee was not in the business of running the trucks on hire and, therefore, the assessee was not entitled to claim higher rate of depreciation at 40%. This finding of the AO -was reversed by CIT (A) vide order dated 29th October; 2004. It was held by CIT (A) that transportation income of Rs. 12,50,639/- by way of running the subject vehicles on hire was an integral part of the assessee's business and that its inclusion under the head 'business Income' was not disputed even by the ao. This finding of CIT (A) was affirmed by the Tribunal. By the impugned judgment, the High Court has refused to interfere on the ground that the matter involved essentially questions of fact. Hence, this Civil Appeal by the Department.
(3.) GENERALLY, this Court does not interfere with the concurrent finding of facts recorded by the authorities below. However, we are of the view that in this case, a neat substantial question of law arose for determination which needed interpretation of the Depreciation Table given in Appendix-I to the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The said Table gives rates at which depreciation was admissible. We quote hereinbelow clause III which reads as under :;