Per Shri T. Venkatappa, Judicial Member - The assessee is a co-operative society engaged in the marketing of the garden produce of its members. It derives income from letting of a cold storage plant also. The assessee urged that the income from cold storage was exempt under section 80P of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ('the Act') as it is a warehouse for storing goods. The ITO did not accept this contention. He held that exemption under section 80P is allowable in respect of income derived by the society from letting of godowns or warehouse and not cold storage plant. Thus, he brought to tax the income from the cold storage plant. He also treated 20 per cent of the commission as receipts from nonmembers and taxed it. The assessee appealed to the AAC. He agreed with the ITO in disallowing the claim for exemption under section 80P and taxing the income from cold storage. He directed that receipts from nonmembers should not be estimated at more than 10 per cent. Against the said order, the assessee has preferred these appeals.

2. The learned counsel for the assessee submitted that the cold storage plant is only a warehouse where vegetables are stored. The cold storage does not ease to be a storage merely because it is a refrigerating chamber. He urged that the claim of the assessee under section 80P should have been allowed. The learned departmental representative urged that cold storage plant is a building with refrigeration equipment for storing commodities and it cannot be treated as a warehouse. Hence, the assessee is not entitled for the deduction under section 80P. On facts he pointed out that the profit and loss account clearly indicates sale of ice which is not eligible for exemption under section 80P.

3. We have considered the rival submissions. We will first consider the claim under section 80P. The relevant portion of section 80P, to the extent it is necessary for our purpose, reads as under :

"(1) Where, in the case of an assessee being a co-operative society, the gross total income includes any income referred to in sub-section (2), there shall be deducted, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of this section, the sums specified in sub-section (2), in computing the total income of the assessee.

(2) The sums referred to in sub-section (1) shall be the following, namely:-

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(e)in respect of any income derived by the co-operative society from the letting of godowns or warehouses for storage, processing or facilitating the marketing of commodities, the whole of such income;"

The expression used in clause (e) of sub-section (2) is 'godown or warehouse'. The question for consideration is whether cold storage can be called warehouse'. The meaning of 'warehouse' as per the Oxford Dictionary is as follows :

"Building used for storage of merchandise."

According to Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, it means:

"a building or room for storing goods."

According to Stroud's Judicial Dictionary, the meaning of warehouse is:

a place where a man stowes or keeps his goods which are not immediately wanted for sale."

According to Black's Law Dictionary, the meaning of warehouse is:

"structure used for reception and storage of goods and merchandise."

The meaning of ‘cold storage’ as per Chambers Twentieth Century, Dictionary is as under :

"storage and preservation of goods in refrigerating chambers."

The word 'storage' has been defined in Oxford English Dictionary as capacity or space for storing, place where something is stored. Cold storage is also put under this heading and means the storing of provisions in refrigerating chambers as a means of preserving them from decay. The ordinary meaning of storage is that it is a place for storing. From the above it is clear that the meaning of warehouse is a building or room for storing goods or merchandise. In respect of certain commodities in order to preserving them for long period from decaying, they are kept in an artificially cooled place, i.e., cold storage. Thus, the cold storage i