Section 83

CHAPTER VII — INCOMES FORMING PART OF TOTAL INCOME ON WHICH NO INCOME-TAX IS PAYABLE

SECTION 83 — INCOME OF MARKETING SOCIETIES (OMITTED)

Case Laws & Commentary (Income-tax Act, 1961 as amended by Finance Act, 2026)

STATUTORY POSITION (Income-tax Act, 1961, as in force)

Marginal heading (as originally enacted): Income Of Marketing Societies

81. to 85C. [Omitted by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1967, w.e.f. 1-4-1968. Provisions of sections 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 85A, 85B and 85C were incorporated from the same date in sections 80P, 80Q, 10(29), 80J (now omitted), 80K (now omitted), 80M (now omitted), 80N (now omitted) and 80-O, respectively.]

A. SECTION COMMENTARY

A.1 Original subject-matter (pre-1968 position)

Section 83 exempted certain income of a marketing society / authority connected with the marketing, storage and processing of commodities. It addressed the income earned from godowns and warehouses used for storage, processing or facilitating the marketing of commodities.

A.2 Insertion and statutory history

Original provision was part of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as enacted (w.e.f. 1-4-1962).

A.3 Omission and migration of the provision

With effect from 1 April 1968 the subject-matter of section 83 was carried into section 10(29), which (until its own omission by the Finance Act, 2002 w.e.f. 1-4-2003) exempted the income of a marketing authority derived from the letting of godowns or warehouses for storage, processing or facilitating the marketing of commodities. Placing the relief in section 10 made it an exclusion from total income rather than a Chapter VII relief.

A.4 Current status

Section 83 does not exist as a live operative provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The Chapter VII slot bears only the omission entry reproduced above. Its policy lives on in section 10(29) (and the provisions that have in turn succeeded it). For an assessment under the 1961 Act there is nothing to apply under section 83 itself; the analysis must proceed under the successor provision and the head of income to which the receipt belongs.

A.5 CA practitioner pointers

(1) Do not cite section 83 in a current return, computation, assessment or appeal — it has stood omitted since the date shown above and any reference to it is liable to be treated as a mistake. (2) Where the receipt in question is of the kind the old section addressed, frame the claim under the successor provision and satisfy its conditions. (3) When relying on older judgments decided on the omitted section, treat them as authority on the underlying concept only, and check that the successor provision has not altered the conditions on which the earlier ruling turned.

B. FA 2026 IMPACT NOTE

The Finance Act, 2026 does not revive or amend section 83; the section remains omitted. FA 2026 makes no change to Chapter VII. (For completeness, the only live section of Chapter VII — section 86 — is also not amended by FA 2026.)

Transition note: the Income-tax Act, 2025 (which commences on 1 April 2026 and replaces the 1961 Act) does not re-enact this omitted provision under its old number; the relief, to the extent it still exists, is found in the corresponding deduction/exemption of the new Act.

C. CASE LAW

No case law subsists under section 83 as a live provision: it was omitted with effect from the date noted above, so no assessment is decided under it today. The jurisprudence on its subject-matter now resides under the successor provision (section 10(29)). For cross-reference and continuity of doctrine, the leading authorities on the successor provision are set out below; they are noted here as authority on the underlying concept, decided under the successor section and not under section 83.

1. Orissa State Warehousing Corporation v. CIT (1999) 237 ITR 589 (SC)

Facts: A State warehousing corporation claimed that the whole of its income was exempt under section 10(29), which exempts income of a marketing authority derived from the letting of godowns or warehouses for storage, processing or facilitating the marketing of commodities.

Held: The Supreme Court (by majority) held that section 10(29) is restrictive: only income directly derived from the letting of godowns/warehouses for the three specified purposes is exempt; other income (e.g. interest on deposits, supervision charges) is taxable.

Relevance: Leading authority on section 10(29), the provision into which old section 83 (income of marketing societies) was carried; defines the narrow ambit of the warehousing exemption.