Section 144BA(3) — the law in short
What the courts have decided on section 144BA(3), in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.
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Statutory position — s.153 Explanation 1(xi): the limitation clock stops from the day the GAAR reference reaches the Commissioner until his direction or the Panel's comes back, and then never leaves less than sixty days
CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
A reference under s.144BA has been made in my case and months have gone by. Does the ordinary time limit for completing the assessment keep running while the Approving Panel sits on it?
No. Clause (xi) of Explanation 1 to s.153 excludes from the limitation period "the period commencing from the date on which a reference for declaration of an arrangement to be an impermissible avoidance arrangement is received by the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner under sub-section (1) of section 144BA and ending on the date on which a direction under sub-section (3) or sub-section (6) or an order under sub-section (5) of the said section is received by the Assessing Officer". The clock therefore stops on receipt of the Assessing Officer's reference and restarts only when the outcome — the Commissioner's own direction under s.144BA(3), the Approving Panel's direction under s.144BA(6), or the Commissioner's order under s.144BA(5) dropping the matter — reaches the Assessing Officer. The proviso that follows the Explanation then gives the officer at least sixty days: if what is left after the exclusion is less than sixty days, the remaining period is extended to sixty days.
Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.
