| Headnote |
Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 – ss.1(3), 2(9)(d), 3, 9, 10, 50, 51, 55, 59, 72, 85 & 86 – 2015 Act, if made retrospectively applicable – Notification/Order notified on 01.07.2015 providing that the Act shall come into force on 01.07.2015– Interim order passed by the High Court restraining the appellants from taking and/or continuing any action against the respondent pursuant to the Order passed u/s.55 by the appellant no.2 – High Court inter alia observed that while exercising the powers u/ss.85 & 86, the Central Government made the said Act retrospectively applicable from 01.07.2015 and passed restraint order – On appeal, held: Black Money Act provides stringent measures for curbing the menace of black money – Sub-s.(3) of s.1 provides, that save as otherwise provided in the said Act, it shall come into force on the 1st day of April, 2016 – Various offences have been defined and stringent punishments have also been provided– However, the scheme of the Act also provided one time opportunity to make declaration in respect of any undisclosed asset located outside India and acquired from income chargeable to tax under the Income-tax Act –s.59 provided that such declaration was to be made on or after the date of commencement of the Act, but on or before a date notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette – Date so notified for making declaration is 30.09.2015 whereas, the date for payment of tax and penalty was notified to be 31.12.2015 –As such, an anomalous situation was arising if the date u/s.1(3) was to be retained as 01.04.2016, then the period for making declaration would have lapsed by 30.09.2015 and the date for payment of tax and penalty would have also lapsed by 31.12.2015– However, in view of the date originally prescribed by s.1(3), such declaration could have been made only after 01.04.2016 – Therefore, in order to give the benefit to the assessee(s) and to remove the anomalies, the date 01.07.2015 was substituted in s.1(3), in place of 01.04.2016 –By doing so, the assessees, who desired to take the benefit of one time opportunity, could have made declaration prior to 30.09.2015 and paid the tax and penalty prior to 31.12.2015 – Further, conjoint reading of the various provisions reveal that the Assessing Officer can charge the taxes only from the assessment year commencing on or after 01.04.2016 – However, the value of the said asset has to be as per its valuation in the previous year – As such, even if there was no change of date in s.1(3), the value of the asset was to be determined as per its valuation in the previous year – Date has been changed only for the purpose of enabling the assessee(s) to take benefit of s.59 – Power was exercised only in order to remove difficulties – In any case, in the present case, the assessment year in consideration was 2019-2020 and the previous year relevant to the assessment year was the year ending on 31.03.2019 – Interim order passed by the High Court holding that by the notification/order dated 01.07.2015, the penal provisions were made retrospectively applicable is set aside – High Court to decide the writ petition on its own merits, uninfluenced by the present observations made only for the purposes of examining the correctness of the interim order – Income Tax Act, 1961 – s.139. |
