The Pune Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ) comprising Shri R S Syal, vice president and Shri S S Viswanethra Ravi, Judicial member has held that late fees u/s 234E can’t be levied for the default committed after the insertion of section 200A(1)(c) of the Amendment by the Finance Act 2015.
The appellant assessee appealed against the order of CIT(A) upholding the charging of interest u/s.234E in respect of Quarter Nos. 2 and 3 of the assessment year 2013-14. The appellant stated that fees for default in furnishing the statements have been imposed on the assessee u/s.234E of the Act for the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the financial year 2012-13.
It was observed that Section 200A deals with the processing of statements of tax deducted at the source. The levy of fee u/s.234E of the Act was provided under Clause (c) of section 200A(1) which was inserted by the Finance Act 2015 w.e.f. 01-06-2015.
The Tribunal viewed that fee u/s.234E can be levied only for the default committed after 01-06-2015 and not before that. In light of the case of Olari Little Flower Kuries Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Union of India and others the Tribunal held that the CIT(A) was not justified in upholding the levy of fee u/s.234E of the Act and set aside the impugned order. The appeals filed by the assessee were allowed.
The assessee was represented by Shri Pratik B Sandbhor and the revenue was represented by Shri M.G. Jasnani.
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