Definitions.
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,
(a) 2[***]
3[(b) Appellate Tribunal means the Appellate
Tribunal constituted under section 252 of the Income-tax Act ;
(c) assessee means a person by whom
wealth-tax or any other sum of money is payable under this Act, and includes
(i) every person in respect of whom any
proceeding under this Act has been taken for the determination of wealth-tax
payable by him or by any other person or the amount of refund due to him or
such other person ;
(ii) every person who is deemed to be an
assessee under this Act ;
(iii) every person who is deemed to be an assessee
in default under this Act ;
4[(ca) Assessing Officer means the Deputy
Commissioner of Income-tax or the Assistant Commissioner or the Income-tax
Officer who is vested with the relevant jurisdiction by virtue of directions or
orders issued under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) of section 120 or any
other provision of the Income-tax Act which apply for the purposes of
wealth-tax under section 8 of this Act and also the 4a[Additional Commissioner or] 4b[Additional
Director or]
Joint Commissioner who is directed under clause (b) of sub-section (4)
of the said section 120 to exercise or perform all or any of the powers and
functions conferred on or assigned to the Assessing Officer under that Act;]
5[(cb)] assessment includes reassessment ;
(d) assessment year means a period of twelve months commencing
on the 1st day of April, every year ;]
6[7(e) 8"assets includes property of every description,
movable or immovable, but does not include,
(1) in relation to the assessment year commencing
on the 1st day of April, 1969, or any earlier assessment year
(i) agricultural land and growing crops, grass or
standing trees on such land ;
(ii) any building owned or occupied by a
cultivator of, or receiver of rent or revenue out of, agricultural land :
Provided
that the building is on or in the immediate vicinity of the land and is a
building which the cultivator or the receiver of rent or revenue by reason of
his connection with the land requires as a dwelling house or a store-house or
an out-house ;
(iii) animals ;
(iv) a right to any annuity in any case where the
terms and conditions relating thereto preclude the commutation of any portion
thereof into a lump sum grant ;
(v) any interest in property where the interest
is available to an assessee for a period not exceeding six years from the date
the interest vests in the assessee ;
(2)
in relation to the assessment year
commencing on the 1st day of April, 1970, or any subsequent assessment year 9[but
before the 1st day of April, 1993]
(i) animals ;
(ii) a right to any annuity 10[(not
being an annuity purchased by the assessee or purchased by any other person in
pursuance of a contract with the assessee)] in any case where the terms and
conditions relating thereto preclude the commutation of any portion thereof
into a lump sum grant ;
(iii) any interest in property where the interest
is available to an assessee for a period not exceeding six years from the date
the interest vests in the assessee :]
11[Provided
that in relation to the assessment year commencing on the 1st day of April,
1981, 12[and
the assessment year commencing on the 1st day of April, 1982], this sub-clause
shall have effect subject to the modification that for item (i) thereof,
the following item shall be substituted, namely :
(i)
(a) agricultural land other than
land comprised in any tea, coffee, rubber or cardamom plantation ;
(b) any
building owned or occupied by a cultivator of, or receiver of rent or revenue
out of, agricultural land other than land comprised in any tea, coffee, rubber
or cardamom plantation :
Provided
that the building is on or in the immediate vicinity of the land and is a
building which the cultivator or the receiver of the rent or revenue by reason
of his connection with the land requires as a dwelling-house or a store-house
or an out-house ;
(c) animals
;:]
13[Provided
further that in relation to the assessment year commencing on the 1st day
of April, 1983 or any subsequent assessment year, this sub-clause shall have
effect subject to the modification that for item (i) thereof, the
following item shall be substituted, namely :
(i)(a) agricultural land and growing crops (including
fruits on trees), grass or standing trees on such land ;
(b) one building or one group of buildings owned
or occupied by a cultivator of, or receiver of rent or revenue out of,
agricultural land :
Provided
that such buildings or group of buildings is on or in the immediate vicinity of
the land and is a building which the cultivator or the receiver of rent or
revenue by reason of his connection with the land requires as store-house or
for keeping livestock ;
(c) animals; :]
14[15[16[Provided
also] that] in relation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir, this sub-clause
shall have effect subject to the modification that for the assets specified in 17[item
(i)] of this sub-clause, the assets specified in 18[items
(i) to (iii)] of sub-clause (1) shall be substituted and
the other provisions of this Act shall be construed accordingly;]
19[(ea) assets, in relation to the assessment year
commencing on the 1st day of April, 1993, or any subsequent assessment year,
means
20[(i) any building or land appurtenant thereto
(hereinafter referred to as house), whether used for residential or
commercial purposes or for the purpose of maintaining a guest house or
otherwise including a farm house situated within twenty-five kilometres from
local limits of any municipality (whether known as Municipality, Municipal Corporation
or by any other name) or a Cantonment Board, but does not include
(1) a house meant exclusively for residential
purposes and which is allotted by a company to an employee or an officer or a
director who is in whole-time employment, having a gross annual salary of less
than five lakh rupees;
(2) any house for residential or commercial
purposes which forms part of stock-in-trade;
(3) any house which the assessee may occupy for
the purposes of any business or profession carried on by him;
(4) any residential property that has been
let-out for a minimum period of three hundred days in the previous year;
(5) any property in the nature of commercial
establishments or complexes;]
(ii) motor cars (other than those used by the
assessee in the business of running them on hire or as stock-in-trade) ;
(iii) jewellery, bullion, furniture, utensils or
any other article made wholly or partly of gold, silver, platinum or any other
precious metal or any alloy containing one or more of such precious metals :
Provided
that where any of the said assets is used by the assessee as stock-in-trade,
such asset shall be deemed as excluded from the assets specified in this
sub-clause ;
(iv) yachts, boats and aircrafts (other than those
used by the assessee for commercial purposes) ;
(v) urban land ;
(vi) cash in hand, in excess of fifty thousand
rupees, of individuals and Hindu undivided families and in the case of other
persons any amount not recorded in the books of account.
Explanation
21[1].For
the purposes of this clause,
(a) jewellery includes
(i) ornaments made of gold, silver, platinum or
any other precious metal or any alloy containing one or more of such precious
metals, whether or not containing any precious or semi-precious stones, and
whether or not worked or sewn into any wearing apparel ;
(ii) precious or semi-precious stones, whether or
not set in any furniture, utensils or other article or worked or sewn into any
wearing apparel ;
(b) urban land means land situate
(i) in any area which is comprised within the
jurisdiction of a municipality (whether known as a municipality, municipal
corporation, notified area committee, town area committee, town committee, or
by any other name) or a cantonment board and which has a population of not less
than ten thousand according to the last preceding census of which the relevant
figures have been published before the valuation date ; or
(ii) in any area within such distance, not being
more than eight kilometres from the local limits of any munici-pality or
cantonment board referred to in sub-clause (i), as the Central
Government may, having regard to the extent of, and scope for, urbanisation of
that area and other relevant considerations, specify in this behalf by
notification22 in the Official Gazette,
but
does not include land on which construction of a building is not permissible
under any law for the time being in force in the area in which such land is
situated or the land occupied by any building which has been constructed with
the approval of the appropriate authority or any unused land held by the
assessee for industrial purposes for a period of two years from the date of its
acquisition by him 23[or any land held by
the assessee as stock-in-trade for a period of 24[ten]
years from the date of its acquisition by him.]
25[Explanation
2.For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that jewellery does
not include the Gold Deposit Bonds issued under the Gold Deposit Scheme, 1999
notified by the Central Government;]
(f) Board means the 26[Central
Board of Direct Taxes constituted under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963
(54 of 1963)] ;
(g) 27[***]
(gg) 28[***]
29[(h) company shall have the meaning assigned to
it in clause (17) of section 2 of the Income-tax Act ;]
30[(ha) co-operative society means a co-operative
society registered under the Co-operative Societies Act, 1912 (2 of 1912), or
under any other law for the time being in force in any State for the
registration of co-operative societies ;]
(hb) 31[***]
(i) executor means an executor or administrator
of the estate of a deceased person ;
32[(ia) High Court, in relation to the Union
territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Goa, Daman and Diu, means the High
Court at Bombay ;]
33[(j) Income-tax Act means the Income-tax Act,
1961 (43 of 1961) ;]
(k) 34[***]
35[(ka) India means the territory of India as
referred to in article 1 of the Constitution, its territorial waters, seabed
and subsoil underlying such waters, continental shelf, exclusive economic zone
or any other maritime zone as referred to in the Territorial Waters,
Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and other Maritime Zones Act, 1976
(80 of 1976), and the air space above its territory and territorial waters;]
(l) 36[***]
(la) 37[***]
38[(lb) legal representative39
has the meaning assigned to it in clause (11) of section 2 of the Code of
Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908) ;]
40[(lc) maximum marginal rate means the rate of
wealth-tax applicable in relation to the highest slab of wealth in the case of
an individual as specified in Part I of Schedule I ;]
40a[(ld) National Tax Tribunal means the National
Tax Tribunal established under section 3 of the National Tax Tribunal Act,
2005;]
41(m) net wealth means the amount by which the
aggregate value computed in accordance with the provisions of this Act of all
the assets, wherever located, belonging to the assessee on the valuation date,
including assets required to be included in his net wealth as on that date
under this Act, is in excess of the aggregate value of all the debts owed by
the assessee 42[on
the valuation date which have been incurred in relation to the said assets ;]
(n) prescribed means prescribed by rules made
under this Act ;
(o) principal officer, used with reference to a
company, means the secretary, manager, managing agent or managing director of
the company, and includes any person connected with the management of the
affairs of the company upon whom the 43[Assessing Officer] has
served a notice of his intention of treating him as the principal officer
thereof ;
44[(oa) public servant45
has the same meaning as in section 21 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860);]
46[(oaa) registered valuer means a person registered
as a valuer under section 34AB;]
47[(ob) regular assessment means the assessment
made under 48[sub-section (3) or
sub-section (5) of section 16;]
(p) Ruler49 means a Ruler as
defined in clause (22) of article 366 of the Constitution ;
(q) valuation date, in relation to any year for
which an assessment is to be made under this Act, means the last day of the
previous year as defined in 50[section 3] of the
Income-tax Act, if an assessment were to be made under that Act for that year :
51[Provided
that
(i) 52[***]
(ii) in the case of a person who is not an
assessee within the meaning of the Income-tax Act, the valuation date for the
purposes of this Act shall be the 31st day of March immediately preceding the
assessment year ;
(iii) where an assessment is made in pursuance of
section 19A, the valuation date shall be the same valuation date as would have
been adopted in respect of the net wealth of the deceased if he were alive ;]
53[(r) Valuation Officer means a person appointed
as a Valuation Officer under section 12A, and includes a Regional Valuation
Officer, a District Valuation Officer, and an Assistant Valuation Officer ;]
54[(s) the expressions Chief Commissioner,
Director-General, Commissioner, Commissioner (Appeals), Director, Additional
Director of Income-tax, Additional Commissioner of Income-tax, Joint Director,
Joint Commissioner of Income-tax, Deputy Director, Deputy Commissioner,
Assistant Commissioner, Assistant Director, Income-tax Officer, Inspector of
Income-tax and Tax Recovery Officer shall have the meanings respectively
assigned to them under section 2 of the Income-tax Act.]