M/S Hasimara
Industries Ltd. Vs. Commissioner of Income Tax West Bengal-IX & Anr [1998]
INSC 308 (13 May 1998)
Sujata
V. Manohar, S. Rajendra Babu Rajendra Babu, J.
ACT:
HEAD NOTE:
This
appeal by special leave under Article 136 of the Constitution of India is
preferred by an assessee under the Income Tax Act against an order made on 29th August, 1986 by the High Court of Calcutta in
Income Tax Reference No. 683 of 1979. The question that fell for consideration
of the High Court is as to deductibility of a sum of Rupees twenty lakhs out of
the assessee's profits as sum was given by way of advance to M/s Saksaria
Cotton Mills Ltd. for modernisation of its plants.
When Saksaria
Cotton Mills Limited was in the process of Liquidation the assessee-company
which owned tea estates filed a scheme in those proceedings and entered into a
leave and licence agreement with that company. Originally the agreement was for
a period of three years from 1st April.19*63 to 31st March. 1966 which was
extended by mutual agreement upto 30th June, 1966. Clause 13 which is relevant for
our purpose in the agreement reads as follows:- " In the event of any new
and complete unit or plant and/or machinery and/or reequipment being installed
by the licence at the licensee's own costs within the licensed premises no
depreciation will be paid by the licensee to the licenser in respect there of
and on the expiry of the period of the licence or its earlier determination by
the licensee, the licensee will be entitled to remove and take away at the
licensee's own cost such new plant, machinery and equipment provided that the
licensee will in that event restore the licensed premises to the contention in
which they were at the time of commencement of the license and make good the
damage, if any, caused to the license and make good the damage, if any, caused
to the licensed premises by removal of such new plant, machinery and equipment.
Mills machinery, plant, equipment, fittings and fixtures being provided by the
licensee in replacement of any existing part or parts of such machinery, the
licensed will be entitled in lieu thereof to retain such sold part or parts of
such machinery so replaced and to deal with the same in such manner as the
licensee deems fit.
If the
licensee desires that the licensor shall bring any new plant, machinery or
equipment or unit it will be in the absolute and uncontrolled discretion of the
licensor whether to do so or not and on such terms as may be agreed to at that
time." The amount of Rupees twenty lakhs is said to have been given by way
of advance in terms of the said clause.
Before
the Assessing Officer the assessee claimed the advance of Rupees twenty lakhs
as deductible on the ground that it became irrecoverable on account of the
incapacity of M/s Saksaria Cotton Mills Limited to repay the same. The
Assessing Officer disallowed the claim stating that the amount represented as
advance to M/s Saksaria Cotter Mills Limited for modernisation of its factory
and the said amount was not taken into consideration in computing the income of
the assessee in any assessment year. he also held that the said sum did not
represent the money lent in the ordinary course of business. He further noticed
that even otherwise the said sum was not entitled to deduction because it had
not become a bad debt in the relevant year of account and the assessee made no
effort to recover the same. On appeal against the assessment order, the
Appellate Assistant Commissioner held that the advance given by the assessee
Company could not be recovered from M/s Saksaria Cotton Mills Limited and had
to be allowed as a deduction as revenue expenditure. He was of the view that assessee-
Company could not have removed the plant and machinery and the debenture
holders of M/s Saksaria Cotton Mills Limited had lien over the entire plant and
machinery. Thus, the said amount represented loss incurred by the assessee in
the course of carrying on of its business and should be allowed as deduction on
account of ordinary commercial principles.
The
matter was carried in appeal by the Department to the Income Tax Appellate
Tribunal. The Tribunal noticed that the said amount of Rupees twenty lakhs
which was advanced was to be treated as capital investment as per the
resolutions of the Board of Directors of the assessee Company. Thus, the assessee
had acquired an advantage of enduring nature and the claim of the assessee was
not allowable as business loss. The amount having been spent on the improvement
of the mill was not advance in the ordinary course of assessee business nor was
it incidental to such business.
Aggrieved
by the order of the Tribunal on a reference made to the High Court at the
instance of the assessee, the High Court at the instance of the assessee, the
High Court held that it is a settled principle that loss of money lent or
advanced would be a capital loss unless the loan was made by a money lender for
whom money was his stock-in-trade and such a situation would arise in case of a
banking or money leading business where money is treated as stock-in-trade.
It was
also noticed by the High Court that although assessee had some money lending
business, the amount of Rupees twenty lakhs was not lent to M/s Saksaria Cotton
Mills Limited as a loan transaction, but pursuant to clause 13 of the
Agreement. It was also noticed by the High Court that it was not a trade dept
and the assessee advanced a sum of Rupees Twenty lakhs so that new plants and
machinery could be bought by M/s Saksaria Cotton Mills Limited for the benefit
of the assessee during the period of the agreement. Thus, the assessee had the
advantage of using a new and more modern profit-making aparatus. When the
Company itself had not treated the advance of Rupees twenty lakhs to M/s Saksaria
Cotton Mills Limited as by way of a loan transaction and the amount had been
treated by the assessee as the capital advance as evidenced by the resolutions
based by the Board of Directors at the time of granting of loan, the High Court
held that the findings of the Tribunal should be affirmed and answered the
question referred for its opinion against the assessee. It is against this
order the present appeal is filed by special leave.
Ms. Radha
Rangaswami, learned counsel for the appellant submitted that though the assessee
had made a lumpsum payment not in order to gain an anduring benefit, out only
to augment income in the course of its ordinary business and sought exemption
was not capital in nature being allowable as revenue expenditure and in terms
of Section 37 of the Income Tax Act.
The
learned counsel for the Department contended that the view of the decision of
this Court in Hasimara Industries Limited vs. Commissioner of west Bengal and
Another (1998) 1 SCC 503 in the very case of the assessee there was hardly any
thing left for decision by us. He submitted that the agreement which is subject
matter of consideration in these proceedings was also considered in that
decision and in the context of another transaction had been interpreted.
Undaunted
by the submission of the learned counsel for the Department, Ms. Radha Rangaswami
persisted in her Commissioner of Income Tax, Gujarat 177 I.T.R. 377. That was
the case where the assessee who was engaged in manufacture of antibiotics
including penicillin acquired knowhow to produce higher yield and sub-culture
of strains of penicillin and there was no evidence to indicate that this was
not in the line of existing manufacturing operations and, therefore this Court
took the view that the payment was made in the course of carrying on an
existing business and the butlay was incurred for the purpose of acquiring the
technical knownow in relation to its business and considering the rapid strides
in science and technology is to pigeonholing an outlay, such as in this case as
capital.
It was
on that basis the Court held that though lumpsum payment had been made once for
all it was not capital in nature and attracted the deduction under Section 37
of the Income Tax Act.
Again,
the learned counsel for the assessee relied upon the decision in Commissioner
of Income Tax, Kerala vs. Malayalam plantations Ltd. 53 I.T.R. 140 wherein
estate duty was paid on the death of non-domiciled shareholders and was
"for the purpose of the business" and "for the purpose of
earning profits" and therefore, allowable as business expenditure. However
that is not the position in the present case wherein the assessee has given an
advance in a sum of Rupees twenty lakhs for a purpose not in the line of its
business as found by the Tribunal which is the last fact of Income Tax 124
I.T.R.1 certain loom hours were purchased by one member of an assessee from
another member and the members in the Association had bound themselves to work
their mills for limited hours per week and in those circumstances the price
paid was held to be in the nature of revenue expenditure in terms of Section
10(2) (xv) of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1952 and not deductible. The test
adopted in that case is the nature of the advantage in a commercial sense and
where it is only the advantage in the capital field, the expenditure cannot be
allowed, but if the advantage consists merely in facilitating the assessee's
trading operations or enabling the management and conduct of the assessee's
business to be carried or more efficiently or more profitable while leaving the
fixed capital untouched, the expenditure would be on revenue account, even
though the advantage may endure for an indefinite future. The purchase of loom
hours did not create any new asset and there was no addition to or expansion of
the profit-making apparatus of the assessee nor the permanent structure of
which the Income was the product remained the same. It was not enlarged nor did
the assessee acquire a source of profit of income when it purchased the looms
in question. The expenditure incurred was primary and essentially related to the
operation or working of the looms which constituted the profit making apparatus
of the assessee and was expenditure laid out as part of the process of profit
earning. It was on that basis the claim was allowed. Therefore that decision
will not help the assessee in the present case.
In
Commissioner of Income Tax vs. Hashimara Industries Limited. 175 I.T.R. 477 the
very agreement with which we are concerned itself was subject matter of
consideration by the High Court. Pursuant to the agreement amount was deposited
with the cotton mills for acquiring profit making apparatus.
Then
there was closing down of the cotton mill and loss of deposit constituted
capital loss. It was held in that case that the assessee's ordinary business
was manufacture and sale or the tea and it started cotton manufacturing
business acquiring the right to operate the mill belonging to another company
for a specified period under a leave and licence agreement after depositing
certain sum in terms of the agreements. After the expiry of the agreements M/s Saksaria
Cotton Mills Limited itself managed the cotton mills out suffered loss and went
into liquidation. consequently, the sum deposited by the assessee remained
unpaid. In those circumstances, it was held that the loss of the deposit was in
the capital account and not business expenditure of assessee. That matter was
carried in appeal to this Court in Hasimara Industries Limited. vs.
Commissioner this Court upheld the view taken by the High Court.
It is
clear from the findings recorded by the Tribunal and the High Court that the assessee's
business is manufacture and sale of tea and is not engaged in cotton
manufacturing business at all; that while it intended to enter into cotton
manufacturing purposes did not set up a cotton mill, but obtained operating
rights from another company under the leave and licence agreement for the
purpose of acquiring the profit making apparatus for a duration of three years
or a little more; that the business of running a cotton mill was not its own,
but was only operating the said mill under leave and licence agreement;
that
the amount of advance in a sum of Rupees of twenty lakhs was given not for its
own purpose by way of business expenditure for modernishing the mill, but as
capital to the lessor who in turn had to modernise the mill. In the resolutions
made by the Board of Directors it was clear that the transaction entered into
was not in the nature of a loan transaction or a money lending transaction and
thus the loss suffered by the assess was a capital loss and hence the amount
could not be deducted from the assessee a income as business lose.
In the
results, the view taken by the High Court affirming the view of the Tribunal
appears to us to be correct and we dismiss this appeal. In the facts and circumstances
of the case, there shall be no order as to costs.
Back
