Sec. 271A of Income Tax Act, 1961 - Penalty – The assessee challenged the penalty levied u/s. 271A by the AO and confirmed by the CIT(A) saying since the assessee has maintained such books of account which was duly audited and submitted before the AO as may enable the AO to compute his total income in accordance with the provision of law, therefore no offence was committed by the assessee so that he could be visited with penalty. ITAT dismissed the appeal of the assessee holding that “there was a cogent reason before the AO for imposing the penalty. It is the duty of the assessee to maintain books of accounts as per Section 44AA of the Act. If the income of the taxpayer falls above the prescribed limit, then he should have to maintain books of accounts u/s.44AA of the Act and he should produce the same as and when required by the AO enabling him to calculate correct taxable income of the assessee, which is lack in this case. Further, there is no any specific date or nearby date when the books of accounts were got damaged by the white ant which came to the notice of the assessee that on a particular date the books of accounts have been damaged by the white ant and there is also no date as to when the hard disks were corrupted. Therefore, the AO was justified in imposing the penalty u/s.271A of the Act for non-maintenance of the books of accounts”. Sanghamitra pattnaik . Vs. ITO [2020] 206 TTJ 35 (UO)(CUTTACK)