Report No. 12
97. Avoidance of tax by certain transactions in securities.-
(1) Where the owner of any securities (in this sub-section and in sub-sections (2) and (3) referred to as "the owner") sells or transfers those securities, and buys back or re-acquires the securities, then, if the result of the transaction is that any interest becoming payable in respect of the securities is receivable otherwise than by the owner, the interest payable as aforesaid shall whether it would or would not have been chargeable to income-tax apart from the provisions of this sub-section, be deemed, for all the purposes of this Act, to be income of the owner and not to be the income of any other person.
[Section 44E(1)]
(2) The references in sub-section (1) to buying back or re-acquiring the securities shall be deemed to include references to buying or acquiring similar securities, so however, that where similar securities are bought or acquired, the owner shall be under no greater liability to income-tax than he would have been under if the original securities had been bought back or re-acquired.
[Section 44E(2)]
(3) Where any person....has had at any time during any previous year any beneficial interest in any securities, and the result of any transaction relating to such securities or the income thereof is that, in respect of such securities, within such year, either no income is received by him or the income received by him is less; than the sum to which the income would have amounted if the income from such securities had accrued from day to day and been apportioned accordingly, then the income from such securities for such year shall be deemed to be the income of such person.
[Section 44F(1) and (2) and section 44F(3) and main para.]
(4) The provisions of sub-section (1) or sub-section (3) shall not apply if the owner, or the person who has had a beneficial interest in the securities, as the case may be, proves to the satisfaction of the Income-tax Officer-
(a) that there has been no avoidance of income-tax, or
(b) that the avoidance of income-tax was exceptional and not systematic and that there was not in his case in any of the three preceding years any avoidance of income-tax by a transaction of the nature referred to in sub-section (1) or sub-section (3).
[Section 44D(3), proviso]
(5) Where any person carrying on a business which consists wholly or partly in dealing in securities buys or acquires any securities, and sells back or re-transfers the securities, then, if the result of the transaction is that interest becoming payable in respect of the securities is receivable by him, no account shall be taken of the transaction in computing for any of the purposes of this Act the profits arising from or loss sustained in the business.
[Section 44E(3)]
(6) Sub-section (5) shall have effect, subject to any necessary modifications, as if references to selling back or re-transferring the securities included references to selling or transferring similar securities.
[Section 44E(4)]
(7) The Income-tax Officer may by notice in writing require any person to furnish him within such time as he may direct (not being less than twenty-eight days), in respect of all securities of which such person was the owner or in which he had a beneficial interest at any time during the period specified in the notice, such particulars as he considers necessary for the purposes of this section and for the purpose of discovering whether income-tax has been borne in respect of the interest on all those securities........
[Section 44E(6), earlier half]
(8) For the purpose of this section,-
(a) 'interest' includes a dividend;
(b) 'securities' includes stocks and shares;
(c) securities shall be deemed to be similar if they entitle their holders to the same rights against the same persons as to capital and interest and the same remedies for the enforcement of those rights, notwithstanding any difference in the total nominal amounts of the respective securities or in the form in which they are held or the manner in which they can be transferred.
[Section 44E(5)]
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