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S. 2(1A): Gains from sale of agricultural land is exempt even though purchaser intends to use the land for commercial purposes

DCIT vs. M. Kalyan Chakravarthy (ITAT Hyderabad)

The only reason the A.O. treated the land as non-agricultural land was that ‘agreement of sale’ read with ‘Irrevocable GPA’ does not indicate that land retained the character of agriculture at the time of transfer. This was also the ground raised by Revenue in the appeal that M/s. Ramky Estates and Farms P. Ltd., may put the property to commercial use, therefore, the land was meant for commercial exploitation and did not have the character of agricultural land at the time of his transfer. There is no dispute that assessee has purchased agricultural land and put to agricultural use as such earlier. The facts indicate that assessee has sold only agricultural land which was also used and put to agricultural use earlier and the purpose for which the purchaser utilized the land cannot be considered as an evidence of change of nature of land as was considered by Assessing Officer. In the case of M.S. Srinivasa Naicker and others vs. ITO (supra), the Hon’ble Madras High Court held that a perusal of s. 45 shows that the requirement as on the date of sale of transfer is that the asset must be capital asset, considering the description under the Act. The chargeability to tax under s. 45 arises only if on the date of sale, the land in question retained its character as a capital asset, which means, an asset, which does not answer the definition of a capital asset and which is an agricultural land would automatically be outside the scope of s. 45. It is no doubt true that the purpose for which the purchaser had purchased was totally different from what the transferor had intended to use the land in question but with the admitted finding that the lands in question were under agricultural operation on the date of sale for the purpose of considering the meaning of capital assets, it matters very little how the subsequent purchaser intended the land in question to be put to use. The Hon’ble Delhi High Court in the case of Hindustan Industrial Resources Ltd., vs. ACIT has taken a similar view. The CIT(A) in his order has followed the decision of Hon’ble Bombay High Court in the case of CIT vs. Debbi Almao and Joaqyam Almao reported in 339 ITR 59 (Bom.) (HC) which also considered similar facts and accepted the contention that no capital gains arises on the sale of agricultural land even though purchaser purchased the property with an intention of selling it for non-agricultural purposes.

 Article referred: http://itatonline.org/archives/dcit-vs-m-kalyan-chakravarthy-itat-hyderabad/

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