Abstract. Since the detection of the first molecule OH in cosmic objects in 1963, scientists got interested in identification of molecules in the cosmic objects. By now more than 170 molecules have been identified. In order to know about the physical conditions prevailing in the cool cosmic objects and about the chemical reactions going on there, scientists are interested in identification of as many molecules as possible. In some molecular clouds, the kinetic temperature is very low, 10 - 20 K. For such objects, anomalous absorption, i.e., the absorption against the cosmic microwave background, may play an important role for identification of molecules. The transition 111 - 110 at 4.829 GHz of H₂CO was the first one showing the anomalous absorption in the cosmic objects. The molecule H₂CS also has been identified in the cosmic objects. We have discussed about the anomalous absorption of 111 - 110 transition in a-type asymmetric top molecules. For the investigation, the required parameters are the radiative and collisional transition probabilities. We can calculate radiative transition probabilities between the rotational levels. Calculation of collisional rates is a tedious job. In absence of accurate collisional rates, we can investigated the anomalous absorption in a qualitative manner by using the scaled values for collisional rates. We find that anomalous absorption of 111 - 110 transition is possible, provided collisional rates satisfy the required condition.