9911796707
TMI Blog2012 (5) TMI 50X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... gether by this common order. 3. Briefly stated, the facts of the case are that the Person Responsible in respect of Collector Land Acquisition, Department of Industries & Commerce, Punjab Chandigarh (in short 'PR') had not filed the e-TDS quarterly returns on respective due dates and so had defaulted u/s 200(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (in short 'the Act'). In response to the show cause notice, the person responsible had submitted before the Addl. CIT (in short the Assessing Officer) that the delay was due to the fact that the land owners have not submitted their PAN numbers and there was no intentional delay on the part of the PR. The Assessing Officer was not satisfied with the explanation on the ground that PR was supposed to obtain ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... through the District/High Courts. The TDS is deducted at Source on the interest is deposited in the Court and not paid directly to the Land Owners. The mostly Land Owners/Agriculturist don't have PAN Numbers. 4. The Assessing Officer ignored the submissions made by the assessee and penalty of Rs. 6,11,600/- was imposed. 5. Govt. has issued guidelines for submission of ETDS quarterly returns. It was decided that Form 26Q with less than 70% of Pan Data will not be accepted for the quarter ending on 30.09.2007. With non availability of requisite PAN data, we could not submit the ETDS returns. Before 30.09.2007 we were filing the all TDS Returns in Time. The Details of our TDS submission is as under: Receipt N ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dated 12.8.2010 informed the PR that there was a delay in filing of e-TDS quarterly returns for the financial years 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10. The total number of days of default was 6116. A show cause notice was issued on 14.12.2010. In reply, the PR has informed that due to non availability of PAN number, the e-TDS quarterly returns could not be filed in time but the tax was well deducted in time and deposited with the government account. 6. Ld. Counsel for the assessee further submitted that Collector Land Acquisition, Department of Industries is a Government Organization. The Organization is acquiring land on behalf of the Punjab Government. The land compensation is paid by the Organization to the land owners through the Di ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... icer and relied upon the reasons mentioned in their respective orders. 8. We have heard the rival submissions and have also perused the materials available on record. In our opinion, the penalty levied in all the aforesaid cases deserves to be canceled. The reasons for taking such a view are stated in the following paras. 9. It is an admitted fact that the amount of tax deducted at source by the assessee (Person Responsible) was paid within the limit under the relevant provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961. There was only a technical and venial breach to the provisions contained in Rule 31A(2) of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 requiring the assessee to submit quarterly returns statement of Tax Deducted at Source which were required to be fil ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r by not filing the e-TDS returns in time, as the amount of TDS was duly deposited in the government treasury within prescribed time. Such delay has not caused any loss to the Revenue/Income Tax Department. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Hindustan Steels Ltd (supra) inter alia held as under:- "An order imposing penalty for failure to carry out a statutory obligation is the result of a quasi-criminal proceedings, and penalty will not ordinarily be imposed unless the party obliged either acted deliberately in defiance of law or was a guilty or conduct contumacious or dishonest, or acted in conscious disregard of its obligation. Penalty will not also be imposed merely because it is lawful to do so. Whether penalty should be imposed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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