Sonjoy Sarma ORDER
Sonjoy Sarma, Member (J)
1. The present appeal is directed at the instance of the revenue against the order of the Learned Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) - 1, Patna, (hereinafter the "ld. CIT(A)") dt. 10/09/2020, passed u/s 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ("the Act") for the Assessment Year 2014-15.
2. The sole issue raised by the department before us in the instant lis relates to the deletion of addition of Rs.2,61,72,000/- by the ld. CIT(A) made by the Assessing Officer in the assessment framed u/s 143(3) of the Act on 30/12/2016 on account of alleged anonymous donations made u/s 115BBC of the Act.
3. Brief facts of the case are that the assessee trust is a charitable organization registered u/s 12AA of Act. It filed its return of income for the year under consideration on 24/06/2015 declaring total income at 'Nil'. Case of assessee was selected for scrutiny through CASS followed by issuance of notice u/s 143(2) & 142(1) of the Act. During the course of assessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer noted from the income & expenditure account that the assessee had shown income at Rs.2,61,72,000/- which was received as donation and incurred expenses to the tune of Rs.2,22,47,910/- which resulted in income over expenditure at Rs.39,25,443/-. The Assessing Officer asked the assessee to submit relevant details in respect of the genuineness of the donations, to which compliance was made by the assessee and a list containing names of 1371 persons was furnished who had made the donations. The Assessing Officer noticed that none of the donations exceeded Rs.20,000/-. For further verification, out of the 1371 persons whose names were provided by the assessee, the Assessing Officer issued letters/summons to 109 persons seeking confirmation of donation to the assessee, however, the same remained unserved or persons denied to have known or given donation to the assessee. Resultantly, the Assessing Officer held the claim of the assessee of having received the amount of Rs.2,61,72,000/- as donation, as baseless and bogus and treated the same as anonymous donation under section 115BBC of the Act and assessed the income of the assessee at Rs.2,87,88,843/- as per the following computation:-
4. Aggrieved the assessee carried the matter in appeal before the ld. First Appellate Authority, who granted relief by deleting the addition made by the Assessing Officer u/s 115BC of the Act.
5. Aggrieved, the revenue is in appeal before this Tribunal.
6. The ld. D/R filed written submissions and vehemently argued supporting the order of the ld. Assessing Officer and contended that the donations so received by the assessee to the tune of Rs.2,61,72,000/-, were from anonymous donors as the identity of the donors was not proved before the Assessing Officer in response to the summons issued to 110 persons out of the list of 1371 donors provided by the assessee and hence the same was rightly added by the Assessing Officer u/s 115BBC of the Act.
7. On the other hand, the ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that the assessee is a trust registered u/s 12AA of the Act engaged in charitable activities. During the course of assessment proceedings on 09/12/2016 the assessee was asked to furnish names of persons from whom donation has been received. In compliance, the assessee had furnished names and complete address of 1371 persons from whom donation totalin........