33ABA. Site Restoration Fund.- (1) Where an assessee
is carrying on business consisting of the prospecting for,
or extraction or production of, petroleum or natural gas or
both in India and in relation to which the Central Government
has entered into an agreement with such assessee for such
business, has before the end of the previous year—
(a) deposited with the State Bank of India any amount or
amounts in an account (hereafter in this section referred
to as the special account) maintained by the assessee with
that Bank in accordance with, and for the purposes specified
in, a scheme (hereafter in this section referred to as the
scheme) approved in this behalf by the Government of India
in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas; or
(b) deposited any amount in an account (hereafter in this
section referred to as the Site Restoration Account) opened
by the assessee in accordance with, and for the purposes specified
in, a scheme framed by the Ministry referred to in clause
(a) (hereafter in this section referred to as the deposit
scheme),
the assessee shall, subject to the provisions of this section,
be allowed a deduction (such deduction being allowed before
the loss, if any, brought forward from earlier years is set
off under section 72) of—
(i) a sum equal to the amount or the aggregate of the amounts
so deposited; or
(ii) a sum equal to twenty per cent of the profits of such
business (computed under the head “Profits and gains
of business or profession” before making any deduction
under this section),
whichever is less :
Provided that where such assessee is a firm, or any association
of persons or any body of individuals, the deduction under
this section shall not be allowed in the computation of the
income of any partner or, as the case may be, any member of
such firm, association of persons or body of individuals :
Provided further that where any deduction, in respect of any
amount deposited in the special account, or in the Site Restoration
Account, has been allowed under this sub-section in any previous
year, no deduction shall be allowed in respect of such amount
in any other previous year :
Provided also that any amount credited in the special account
or the Site Restoration Account by way of interest shall be
deemed to be a deposit.
(2) The deduction under sub-section (1) shall not be admissible
unless the accounts of such business of the assessee for the
previous year relevant to the assessment year for which the
deduction is claimed have been audited by an accountant as
defined in the Explanation below sub-section (2) of section
288 and the assessee furnishes, along with his return of income,
the report of such audit in the prescribed form40 duly signed
and verified by such accountant :
Provided that in a case where the assessee is required by
or under any other law to get his accounts audited, it shall
be sufficient compliance with the provisions of this sub-section
if such assessee gets the accounts of such business audited
under such law and furnishes the report of the audit as required
under such other law and a further report in the form prescribed
under this sub-section.
(3) Any amount standing to the credit of the assessee in
the special account or the Site Restoration Account shall
not be allowed to be withdrawn except for the purposes specified
in the scheme or, as the case may be, in the deposit scheme.
(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3),
no deduction under sub-section (1) shall be allowed in respect
of any amount utilised for the purchase of—
(a) any machinery or plant to be installed in any office
premises or residential accommodation, including any accommodation
in the nature of a guest-house;
(b) any office appliances (not being computers);
(c) any machinery or plant, the whole of the actual cost
of which is allowed as a deduction (whether by way of depreciation
or otherwise) in computing the income chargeable under the
head “Profits and gains of business or profession”
of any one previous year;
(d) any new machinery or plant to be installed in an industrial
undertaking for the purposes of business of construction,
manufacture or production of any article or thing specified
in the list in the Eleventh Schedule.
(5) Where any amount standing to the credit of the assessee
in the special account or in the Site Restoration Account
is withdrawn on closure of the account during any previous
year by the assessee, the amount so withdrawn from the account,
as reduced by the amount, if any, payable to the Central Government
by way of profit or production share as provided in the agreement
referred to in section 42, shall be deemed to be the profits
and gains of business or profession of that previous year
and shall accordingly be chargeable to income-tax as the income
of that previous year.
Explanation.—Where any amount is withdrawn on closure
of the account in a previous year in which the business carried
on by the assessee is no longer in existence, the provisions
of this sub-section shall apply as if the business is in existence
in that previous year.
(6) Where any amount standing to the credit of the assessee
in the special account or in the Site Restoration Account
is utilised by the assessee for the purposes of any expenditure
in connection with such business in accordance with the scheme
or the deposit scheme, such expenditure shall not be allowed
in computing the income chargeable under the head “Profits
and gains of business or profession”.
(7) Where any amount, standing to the credit of the assessee
in the special account or in the Site Restoration Account,
which is released during any previous year by the State Bank
of India or which is withdrawn by the assessee from the Site
Restoration Account for being utilised by the assessee for
the purposes of such business in accordance with the scheme
or the deposit scheme is not so utilised, either wholly or
in part, within that previous year, the whole of such amount
or, as the case may be, part thereof which is not so utilised
shall be deemed to be profits and gains of business and accordingly
chargeable to income-tax as the income of that previous year.
(8) Where any asset acquired in accordance with the scheme
or the deposit scheme is sold or otherwise transferred in
any previous year by the assessee to any person at any time
before the expiry of eight years from the end of the previous
year in which it was acquired, such part of the cost of such
asset as is relatable to the deduction allowed under sub-section
(1) shall be deemed to be the profits and gains of business
or profession of the previous year in which the asset is sold
or otherwise transferred and shall accordingly be chargeable
to income-tax as the income of that previous year :
Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall apply—
(i) where the asset is sold or otherwise transferred by
the assessee to Government, a local authority, a corporation
established by or under a Central, State or Provincial Act
or a Government company as defined in section 617 of the Companies
Act, 1956 (1 of 1956); or
(ii) where the sale or transfer of the asset is made in connection
with the succession of a firm by a company in the business
or profession carried on by the firm as a result of which
the firm sells or otherwise transfers to the company any asset
and the scheme or the deposit scheme continues to apply to
the company in the manner applicable to the firm.
Explanation.—The provisions of clause (ii) of the proviso
shall apply only where—
(i) all the properties of the firm relating to the business
or profession immediately before the succession become the
properties of the company;
(ii) all the liabilities of the firm relating to the business
or profession immediately before the succession become the
liabilities of the company; and
(iii) all the shareholders of the company were partners
of the firm immediately before the succession.
(9) The Central Government may, if it considers necessary
or expedient so to do, by notification in the Official Gazette,
direct that the deduction allowable under this section shall
not be allowed after such date as may be specified therein.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this section,—
(a) “State Bank of India” means the State Bank
of India constituted under the State Bank of India Act, 1955
(23 of 1955);
(b) the expression “amount standing to the credit
of the assessee in the special account or the Site Restoration
Account” includes interest accrued to such accounts.
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