Waseem Ahmed ORDER
Mahavir Prasad, Member (J)
1. The captioned three appeals have been filed at the instance of the assessee against the orders of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-8, Ahmedabad ('CIT(A)' in short) vide Appeal Nos. CIT(A)-8/423/15-16, CIT(A)-8/424/14-15 & CIT(A)-8/425/15-16; respectively, all dated 22.02.2017 arising in the assessment order dated all 08.01.2016 passed by the Assessing Officer (AO) under s. 201(1)/201(1A) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) concerning AYs. 2013-14 to 2015-16.
2. Since, in all appeals facts & circumstances & issues are common, therefore, for the sake of brevity, we would like to dispose of these matters by way of a common order. ITA No. 1072/Ahd/2017 for A.Y. 2013-14 is taken as lead case for disposal of the above appeals.
3. The grounds of appeal raised by assessee in A.Y. 2013-14 read as under:
"1. Both the lower authorities have erred in law and on the facts of the case in confirming the nature of Service agreement entered by the appellant with various agencies for supply of labour and work as "professional in nature" U/S. 194J instead of 194C while framing the assessment u/s. 201(1)/201(1 A) of the Act and while passing the appellate order under the facts and circumstances of the case the action of both the authority are required to be quashed.
2. The Ld. CIT(A) has erred in law and on facts of the case has confirmed the interest charged U/s. 201 (1A) of IT Act which otherwise not warranted as appellant has rightly deducted and paid required TDS and there is no loss to the revenue.
3. Both the lower authorities have failed to appreciate the facts and nature of work and held as professional work.
4. Both the lower authorities have erred in law and on facts in passing the orders without properly appreciating the facts and that he further erred in grossly ignoring various submissions, explanations and information agreement with various agencies submitted by the appellant from time to time which ought to have been considered before passing the impugned order. This action of both the authorities is in clear breach of law and Principles of Natural Justice and therefore deserves to be quashed."
4. Facts of the case are that the assessee is a society under the control of Commissioner of Health, Gandhinagar and various agencies were appointed for carrying out work of screening and subsequently submission of report to concerned authority. TDS on these payments was deducted @2% or at lower rate of 1% UNDER s. 194C of the Act. In this regard, details were gathered during the course of survey as well as after the survey by issuing notices on various dates. The details of parties to whom payments were made under the project in different years starting from F.Y. 2012-13 to F.Y. 2014-15 and TDS deducted thereon is as per the table below:
In this case, the assessee has entered into agreement with the abovementioned entities for the purpose of carrying out screening (i.e. DTT test, HPLC test etc.) of Sickle Cell Anemia in tribal district of Gujarat. It was seen that the function performed by the above entities fall under the purview of professional services/managerial and consultancy services as per section 194J of the Act and therefore liab........