Late filing of Form 67 can defeat foreign tax credit when the declaration is unavailable at return processing.

Foreign tax credit was denied because Form No. 67 was not filed within the due date linked to section 139(1) and was not available when the return was processed. On these facts, the time-bound filing requirement was treated as mandatory for claiming the credit, so the late declaration could not support allowance of foreign tax credit at the processing stage.

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Issues: Whether credit for foreign tax paid could be denied because Form No. 67 was filed after the due date for filing the return of income under section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: The return for the assessment year was processed before Form No. 67 was filed. Since the form was not available with the processing authority on the date of processing, the claim for foreign tax credit was not admissible at that stage. The filing requirement within the prescribed time under section 139(1) was treated as mandatory for availing the credit in the present facts.

Conclusion: Credit for foreign tax paid was rightly denied, as Form No. 67 was not filed within the due date and was not available when the return was processed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the prescribed declaration for foreign tax credit is not filed within the time linked to section 139(1) and is unavailable when the return is processed, the credit can be lawfully denied.

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