Ruling on an appeal filed by an individual, the Agra bench of ITAT said the order would act as a precedent for all similar cases.

The appellant, a housewife Uma Agrawal of Gwalior, had declared total income of ₹1,30,810 in her income tax return filed for fiscal 2016-17. However, post demonetisation, the assessee deposited the ₹2,11,500 cash in her bank account.

The case was selected for scrutiny assessment, during which the assessee was asked to explain the cash deposit of over ₹2.11 lakh. The assessee had explained that she had collected/saved the above sum from her previous saving, given by her husband, son, relatives for herself and her family.

The CIT (Appeals) did not accept the explanation and confirmed the Assessing officer’s order treating the cash deposit of ₹2,11,500 as unexplained money. Following this, the appellant approached the ITAT.

The Tribunal, after going through all the facts and arguments, said “we are of the opinion that the amount deposited by the assessee during the demonetisation cannot be treated as income of the assessee. Hence the appeal of the assessee is allowed.”

Observing that housewife’s contribution in the family is “immeasurable”, the Tribunal said quoting an order by the Supreme Court, which mentioned that, in India, nearly 159.85 million women stated that ‘household work’ was their main occupation compared to only 5.79 million men, as per 2011 Census.

“Women all over the country, had been accumulating cash that they had saved for themselves from household budgets, by haggling with vegetable sellers, tailors, grocers and assorted traders.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/income-tax-tribunal-clarifies-on-cash-deposits-by-housewives-post-demonetisation-11624435843880.html