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This circular sets out the standard operating procedure for a co-operative society engaged in the manufacture of sugar to apply for the recomputation of total income under section 155(19) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The procedure applies for assessment year 2015-16 or any earlier assessment year where disallowances occurred for sugarcane purchase prices. The eligible co-operative society files an application with the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer. The Jurisdictional Assessing Officer examines relevant documents, recomputes the total income, and passes an order within six months from the end of the month of receipt of the application. The rectification under section 155(19) read with section 154 can occur until March 31, 2027.
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F. No.370133 18/2023-TPL Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue (Central Board of Direct Taxes) (TPL Division)
Circular No. 14 of 2023 Dated: 27th July, 2023
Sub: Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for making application for recomputation of total income of a co-operative society engaged in the business of manufacture of sugar, as provided for in the sub-section (19) of section 155 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - reg.
Sugar factories operating in the co-operative sectors in certain States of India pay to sugarcane growers a final amount, often referred to as Final Cane Price (FCP) which is over and above the Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) fixed by the Central Government under the Sugarcane Control Order, 1996.
The payment of FCP by the co-operative sugar factories over and above the SMP for purchase of sugarcane had resulted into tax litigation. The co-operative sugar factories were claiming this excess payment as business expenditure whereas the same has been disallowed in the assessment on the ground that the excess price paid for purchase of sugar cane over and above SMP is in the nature of appropriation/distribution of profit and hence not allowable as deduction.
In order to provide certainty in this matter and to encourage co-operative movement in sugar sector, a new clause (xvii) was inserted to amend sub-section (1) of section 36 of the Income-tax Act (hereinafter referred to as 'Act') to provide that the amount paid for purchase of sugarcane by the co-operative societies engaged in the manufacture of sugar at a price which is equal to or less than the price fixed by or fixed with the approval of the Government shall be allowed as deduction for computing business income of the sugar co-operative factories. The said amendment came into force through the Finance Act 2015 w.e.f. 01.04.2016 and was applicable from A. Y. 2016-17 onwards. Pending demands and litigation still persisted in respect of A Y s prior to 2016-17.
Therefore, to conclude the matter logically and to extend the benefit of the abovementioned relief to all the applicable years, section 155 of the Act has been amended to insert a new sub-section (19) vide Finance Act, 2023, w.e.f. Ol st April 2023. It provides that in the case ofa sugar mill cooperative, where any deduction in respect of any expenditure incurred for the purchase of sugarcane has been claimed by an assessee and such deduction has been disallowed wholly or partly in any previous year commencing on or before the I sl day of April, 2014, the Assessing Officer shall, on the basis of an application made by such assessee in this regard, recompute the total income of such assessee for such previous year. The Assessing Officer shall allow such deduction to the extent such expenditure is incurred at a price which is equal to or less than the price fixed or approved by the Government for that previous year. Also, it provides that the provisions of section 154 of the Act shall, so far as may be, apply thereto, and the period of four years specified in sub-section (7) of said section 154 shall be reckoned from the end of previous year commencing on the 1 st day of April, 2022.
In order to standardize the manner of filing application to the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer under sub-section (19) of section 155 of the Act and its disposal by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer under the said section, following SOP has been outlined.
Hindi version to follow.
Joint Secretary (TPL)-II
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