The Agra bench of the ITAT, comprising of Shri Anil Chaturvedi, Accountant Member And Sh. Laliet Kumar, Judicial Member has held that the late fee under section 234E of the Income Tax Act, 1961 for the failure to file TDS/TCS returns prior to 1st June 2015.
As per section 234E, where a person fails to file the TDS/TCS return on or before the due date prescribed in this regard, then he shall be liable to pay, by way of fee, a sum of Rs. 200 for every day during which the failure continues. The amount of late fees shall not exceed the amount of TDS/TCS.
The assessee, Garrison Engineer (E/M), was aggrieved with the orders of the income tax department imposed late fee in the intimation issued u/s 200A/206CB of the Act while processing the TDS returns/statements as the enabling clause (c) having been inserted in the section w.e.f. 01.06.2015.
The assessee contended that in respect of TDS statement filed for a period up to 31.03.2015, no late fee could be levied in the intimation issued under section 200A of the Act.
While considering a second appeal filed by the assessee, the Tribunal held that there was no enabling provision in the Act under section 200A for raising demand in respect of levy of fee u/s 234E.
The bench noted that on similar facts, the same issue has been adjudicated by the Co-ordinated bench ITAT Agra,in the case of ‘Sudershan Goyal vs. DCIT (TDS) wherein it was held that the payment of fee under Section 234E could not be made in purported exercise of power under Section 200A by the respondent for the period of the respective assessment year prior to 1.6.2015.
Concluding the order in favour of the assessee, the Tribunal held that “In the above view, respectfully following ‘Shri Fatehraj Singhvi and Ors’ (Supra), and our own finding in the case of ‘Sudershan Goyal’ (Supra), we accept the grievance of the assessees as genuine. Accordingly, the orders of the CIT(A) are reversed and the fee so levied under section 234E of the Act is cancelled.”
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