ITAT Treats Lease Rentals as Business Income

The Mumbai ITAT held that lease rentals earned from commercial exploitation of a commercial complex developed under a public infrastructure development arrangement constituted business income and not income from house property. 

The Tribunal reiterated that where the assessee is neither the owner nor deemed owner of the property and the leasing activity forms an integral part of its business model, the receipts are assessable under the head “Profits and Gains of Business or Profession.”