- (1.) By means of the present writ petition the Petitioner is challenging the validity of the notice dated 6-5-2002 for the assessment year 2000-01 under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (called the 'Act' for short).
(2.) The Petitioner is a company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. The case of the Petitioner is that its manufacturing unit was established in a free trade zone in the year 1993 and was engaged in the manufacturing and export of electrical lamp and, thus, its profit derived from such undertaking was exempted from tax for a period of 10 consecutive assessment years under Section 10A of the Act. Ten years expired in the assessment year 2002-03 relevant to the financial year 2001-02. The Petitioner filed income-tax returns for the assessment years 1993-94 onwards. The Petitioner has also filed income-tax return for the assessment year 2000-01 on 23-11-2000 declaring NIL taxable income. The Petitioner claimed exemption on an income of Rs. 8,21,01,337 under Section 10A of the Act. In the record there is nothing to show that any assessment order either under Section 143(1)(a) or Section 143(3) of the Act was passed. Learned Counsel for the Petitioner, Sri O.P. Bajpai, during the course of arguments, has stated that no assessment order, either under Section 143(1)(a) or Section 143(3), has been passed.
(3.) The assessing authority, on 19-7-2002, recorded the reasons and issued notice under Section 148 of the Act. The reasons recorded are as follows : The return declaring income nil has been filed on 23-11-2000. The net income of Rs. 8,21,01,337 has been claimed exempt under Section 10A. A perusal of the balance sheet show that the Assessee company has not claimed depreciation on the value of Plant & Machinery of Rs. 14,56,17,518 being on a/c of exchange fluctuation. The 25 per cent depreciation on this amount comes to Rs. 3,64,04,380 which has not been deducted from the income and instead of Rs. 4,56,96,957 an amount of Rs. 8,21,01,337 has been claimed exempt under Section 10A resulting in excess claim of exemption during the year and reduction in tax liability. As such, I have reason to believe that an amount of Rs. 3,64,04,380 has escaped assessment for which the proceedings under Section 147 required to be initiated. Issue notice of under Section 148 for assessment year 2000-01.;