Year-end expense provisions and TDS liability: demand under section 201 and interest remained payable absent later deduction or write-back.

Tax deduction at source on year-end expense provisions remained undischarged where no evidence showed deduction in a later year or write-back of the provision. On that factual basis, the demand under section 201(1) survived and the consequential interest under section 201(1A) also remained payable. The Tribunal distinguished earlier years where relief had depended on later deduction or write-back, and accepted the assessee's declaration under section 158A(1), noting that the pending question of law for those years would govern the present years when finally decided.

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Issues: Whether tax was deductible at source on year-end expense provisions and, if not deducted in time, whether the assessee could be treated as an assessee in default under section 201(1) and made liable to interest under section 201(1A).

Analysis: The appeals were disposed of by following the coordinate bench order in the assessee's own case for earlier assessment years, but the Tribunal noted that in those years relief had turned on the factual finding that tax had been deducted in the subsequent year or the provision had been written back. In the present appeals, no such material was shown. The Tribunal held that the assessee's liability to deduct tax on the provisions remained undischarged in the relevant years and in any subsequent year. On that basis, the demand under section 201(1) continued to survive, and the consequential interest under section 201(1A) also remained payable. The Tribunal further accepted the assessee's declaration under section 158A(1) and recorded that the pending question of law for the earlier years would govern the present years when finally decided.

Conclusion: The assessee's challenge to the demand under section 201(1) and the levy of interest under section 201(1A) was rejected.

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