The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) Delhi Bench held that no disallowance should be made towards the process of payment of employee’s contribution to Employee Provident Fund (EPF) before expiry of the time limit.
Assesee, Rai Bahadur Narain Singh made payment of Employees’ Contributions to Provident Fund on 15.01.2018 and Challan was generated but the transactions could be completed by the delay of 9 hours 15 minutes on 16.01.2018 due to some technical problems in the Departmental Portal of Employees’ Contribution to Provident Fund.
However during the assessment proceedings AO disallowed the claim of assessee. Thus aggrieved, the order assessee filed an appeal before the National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC). Therefore the assessee filed second appeal before the tribunal.
While considering the appeal the tribunal observed that the Employees’ Contribution to ESI/PF was offered by the assessee for payment of Employees’ Contributions to Provident Fund on 15.01.2018, and a Challan was generated, but due to some technical issues in the Departmental Portal of Employees’ Contribution to Provident Fund, the transactions could only be completed by the delay of 9 hours 15 minutes on 16.01.2018.
Therefore the bench opinionated that “when the assessee has started process of payment of Employees’ Contribution to ESI/EPF before expiry of time limit and the same was completed by the delay of only 9 hours and 15 minutes due to technical problem or fault in the relevant portal then the addition/disallowance cannot be made in the hands of assessee”.
After considering the facts submitted and circumstance, the two member bench of M. Balaganesh, (Accountant Member) and Chandra Mohan Garg (Judicial Member) held that no disallowance should be made towards the process of payment of employee’s contribution to Employee Provident Fund(EPF) before expiry of the time limit.
Aditi Gupta , appeared for the assessee and Vivek Vardhan, appeared for revenue
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