COMMISSIONER OF WEALTH TAX Vs. A A SALAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These connected Wealth Tax Appeals are filed by the Revenue against the order of the Tribunal holding that cash in hand in excess of Rs. 50,000/- in the hands of the assessees who are all individuals, does not form part of the asset under S.2(ea)(vi) of the Wealth Tax Act. We have heard senior counsel Sri. P. K. R. Menon appearing for the appellants and various counsel appearing for the respondents.

(2.) All the respondent assessees are individuals who have, in the books of accounts, cash in hand on the valuation date, in the case of some of the assessees', above Rs. 30 lakhs, in some cases above Rs.50 lakhs and in few cases it is above a crore of rupees and in one case cash in hand held by an individual assessee is in as much as Rs. 2.6 crores. According to the assessees all of them are engaged in business and the cash in hand is nothing but business asset which is a productive asset not forming part of asset as defined under the provisions of the Wealth Tax Act, 1957. Since the sole question pertains to scope of meaning of S.2(ea)(vi) of the Act, we extract hereunder the said provision for easy reference:

(3.) The contention of the appellants is that cash in hand excluded from 'assets' for individual assessees is only Rs.50,000/- and any amount held as cash in hand in excess of Rs.50,000/- is an asset falling under the above definition clause. The contention of the assessees is that so far as businessmen are concerned, cash in hand is a business asset and being productive it is not to be treated as asset within the meaning of the above clause. The assessees have relied on the speech made by the Finance Minister while introducing the Finance Bill 1992 containing the above provision for exemption and they have also relied on the two decisions of the Supreme Court in Apollo Tyres Ltd. v. CIT, 2002 KHC 429 : 2002 (9) SCC 1 : 2002 (2) KLT 283 : AIR 2002 SC 2131 and in KSIDC Ltd. v. CIT, 2003 KHC 1778 : 2003 (11) SCC 363 : 2003 (259) ITR 51.