Site Restoration Fund

Section 33ABA, of Income Tax Act, 1961 states that

(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 ³¹[before the specified date referred to in section 44AB and the assessee furnishes by that date] the report of such audit in the prescribed form³² 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 company³³ 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.