Commissioner of Income Tax vs Nowrusjee Wadia and Sons (P.) Ltd.

Mrs. Manohar, J.—The assessee-company who is the respondent in this application, claimed weighted deduction u/s 35B(1)(b)(iv) of the income tax Act, 1961 (''the Act'') in respect of commission payments made to foreign parties amounting to Rs. 13,85,614 for the assessment year 1983-84. The Tribunal, following its own decision for the assessment year 1982-83 dated 17-8-1989 in the assessee''s own case, held that the assessee is entitled to weighted deduction for the year 1983-84. The Tribunal declined to frame a question as requested by the department and refer it to us. Hence, this application is made u/s 256(2) of the Act. The payments in question are admittedly payments made as commission to various agents of the assessee-company abroad. The Tribunal has described these payments as agency commission. u/s 35B(1)(b)(iv) weighted deduction is permissible in respect of the expenditure incurred for maintenance outside an agency for the promotion of sale outside India of goods, services or facilities. Since these are agency commissions, the Tribunal has rightly allowed the weighted deduction u/s 35B(1)(b)(iv). Therefore, no referable question of law arises for determination. In any event the answer to such a question would be obvious. Hence, we discharge the rule with costs.