Commissioner of Income Tax vs Pure Pharma Pvt. Ltd.

Shri R.L. Jain, learned senior counsel with Smt. Sonali Gupta for the appellant.

Heard on admission. This appeal u/s 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"), is at the instance of the Revenue against an order passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in I. T. A. No. 16/Ind of 1997 for the assessment year 1993-94 decided on May 23, 2003. The appeal before the Tribunal was also at the instance of the appellant-Revenue against the appellate order passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals).

A few facts material for deciding the said appeal, in short, may be mentioned as under : The respondent/assessee company is engaged in manufacturing and sale of pharmaceutical formulations. During the previous financial year, the assessee had paid total commission of Rs. 13,35,336. Out of, this, a sum of Rs. 10,24,290 was paid as commission on sales made to the Government and its agencies and a sum of Rs. 3,11,046, was paid as commission to non-Government purchases. Since, a doubt was raised with regard to the payments made to various parties as commission, enquiry was held. It was found that all the payments have been made as commission to various parties by demand drafts, wherein the identity of each of the agents was also established. It has also been, found that the commission was paid exclusively for business purposes only.

All these are findings of fact and no substantial question of law, as is required to be formulated for deciding the appeal, arises in the same. The Tribunal has also placed reliance oh a judgment of the Delhi High Court reported in Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Electric Construction Equipment Co. Ltd., wherein the Delhi High Court dealing with identical question has already, decided the matter against the present appellant-Revenue.

In the light of the aforesaid submission, we are of the opinion that the present appeal does not raise any substantial question of law to be answered by this court. The appeal being devoid of merit or substance, is hereby dismissed.