The Delhi High Court upheld the income tax addition to declared income on money received under Marketing Assistance Programme (MPA). The record showed that the Assessing Officer (AO) had made the following two additions to the declared income of the respondent/assessee on the money received under Marketing Assistance Programme [“MAP”] executed between the respondent/assessee and an entity going by the name Exxon mobile Lubricants Pvt. Ltd. [“Exxon”]. Since the MAP agreement required the respondent/assessee to spend money in his capacity as the distributor of “Exxon” towards marketing, it had spent, against the amount received, Rs.2,03,13,728/-. Sanjay Kumar, who appeared on behalf of the appellant/revenue, informs us that the Tribunal’s decision on the said AYs was against the appellant/revenue and in favour of the respondent/assessee. It is, however, pointed out that appeals to the court were not preferred in the said AYs on account of the tax impact being below the prescribed threshold limit. A perusal of the clauses would show, as noted by the Tribunal, even for AY 2011-12, that the amount received by the respondent/assessee in his capacity as a distributor was passed on to sub-contractors as and when they lifted the goods in issue. A Division Bench comprising Rajiv Shakdher and Girish Kathpalia observed that “Clause 6 of the MAP agreement, as extracted hereinabove, would show that the amount received under the MAP agreement by the respondent/assessee was conditional and was liable to be returned to Exxon in certain situations, as indicated in sub-clauses (a) to (f) of clause 6. 20. It is also surprising that the AO chose to treat only the difference between the amounts received and spent, as income. In our view. if the amount received was income of the respondent/assessee, then the entire amount i.e., Rs. 5,99,00,000 should have been treated as income.”