Home Case Index All Cases Income Tax Income Tax + AT Income Tax - 2019 (1) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2019 (1) TMI 1613 - AT - Income TaxLate filing fee u/s 234E - processing the statement under Section 200A - HELD THAT:- The late fee envisaged in Section 234E of the Act has been charged by the Assessing Officer in this case while processing the TDS statement under Section 200A of the Act on 14.06.2013, which is indeed prior to 01.06.2015. Ostensibly, a perusal of bare provisions of Section 200A of the Act show that prior to 01.06.2015, it did not empower the AO to levy the fee prescribed in Section 234E of the Act, while processing the statement of TDS. Thus, the stand of the assessee is borne out of the bare provisions of the Act, as it stood at the relevant point of time. Our coordinate bench in the case of M/s. Dhami Finance Ltd. [2017 (11) TMI 1847 - ITAT MUMBAI] has also taken a similar view. In fact, the Mumbai bench has noted and followed an earlier decision of the Pune bench of the Tribunal in the case of Gajanan Constructions and others [2016 (11) TMI 1247 - ITAT PUNE] . In so far as the reliance placed by the CIT(A) on the judgment of MR RASHMIKANT KUNDALIA AND ANOTHER VERSUS UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS [2015 (2) TMI 412 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT] , the same is quite misplaced wherein merely upheld the constitutional validity of Section 234E of the Act; and not dealing with the issue as to whether prior to 01.06.2015, while processing the TDS statement under Section 200A of the Act, the late fee envisaged under Section 234E of the Act, could be levied or not. Thus, reliance placed on this case above is misplaced, as it has been rendered in an altogether different context. We delete the levy of fee charged by the Assessing Officer under Section 234E of the Act while processing the statement under Section 200A of the Act, as being bereft of jurisdiction at the relevant point of time.
|