VAZHAKKALA ESTATES PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a revision filed by an assessee to agricultural income tax. The revision is filed under S. 78 of the Kerala Agrl. IT Act, 1991. The respondent is the Revenue. The assessee assails the order passed in revision by the Commr. of Agrl. IT, Thiruvananthapuram dt. 16th Dec., 1992 affirming the order of assessment passed by the IAC, Agrl. IT & Sales tax, Kottayam dt. 18th Sept., 1990. We are concerned with the asst. year 1985 86, for which the previous year ended on 31st March, 1985.

(2.) THE petitioner assessee is a private limited company. It reported for the particular assessment year a total loss of Rs. 1,38,686.80. It owned the estates, Graceland Estate and Janasree Estate. The Agrl. ITO found that the books of accounts and the returns cannot be accepted. It was noticed that the account produced was not written in the usual course of business. The accounts were seen written at a stretch in regular intervals. So it was held that the above documents could not be relied on. It was further noticed that the yield returned from the estate was very low. Similarly, Keezhar and Parayankulam Estates, the yield from slaughter tapping as returned by the assessee was not accepted. The assessing authority referred to the pre assessment notice dt. 11th Dec., 1989 as also the subsequent notice dt. 20th April, 1990 and held that the income returned from slaughter tapping in Keezhar and Parayankulam Estates cannot be accepted and that the income thereon will be estimated. The reason stated was that the average income from slaughter tapping comes only to Rs. 19 per tree. On the other hand, in similar other estates nearby, the average income from slaughter tapping returned is much more and there are other similar cases also. The average value of a tree given for slaughter tapping by the assessee worked out to Rs. 47, whereas, in similar cases, viz. Padinjarekara Estates Limited, it worked out to Rs. 234 per tree and similar other cases showed Rs. 210. On that basis, the income from slaughter tapping was fixed reckoning the average value of the tree as Rs. 210 and the latex value at 2/3 of the above Rs. 140. So, for 1,050 trees, the latex value was fixed at Rs. 1,47,000 and allowing deduction for the tapping expenses at 30%, the balance income was fixed at Rs. 1,02,900. The plea of the assessee that the agreement relating to the slaughter tapping should be accepted was negatived for the reason that the agreement was not a registered one and its credibility was open to doubt since the date of issue of the stamp paper is not recorded. Moreover, the plot was inspected by the Agrl. ITO, Kottayam on 1st Aug., 1984 and, at that time, the agreement was not produced before the officer. It was for these reasons, the Agrl. ITO, by order dt. 18th Sept., 1990, fixed the total income from all the trees at Rs. 2,39,240.20 before depreciation and levied tax thereon.

(3.) WE heard counsel for the revision petitioner.