Foreign tax credit cannot be denied for delayed Form No. 67 filing when the treaty benefit remains substantively available.

Foreign tax credit under section 90 could not be denied merely because Form No. 67 was not filed with the original return. The Tribunal treated the filing timeline as a procedural requirement, not a condition precedent to the treaty-backed benefit, and noted that the form was later filed with the revised return. It held that neither section 90 nor the relevant tax treaty prescribed disallowance for such procedural non-compliance. The credit remained available, subject to verification, because a substantive entitlement cannot be lost for a curable default where the governing provision does not expressly bar relief.

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Issues: Whether foreign tax credit could be denied merely because Form No. 67 was not filed along with the original return of income.

Analysis: The Tribunal held that neither Section 90 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 nor the double taxation avoidance arrangement prescribed disallowance of foreign tax credit for breach of procedural requirements. It treated foreign tax credit as a vested entitlement and held that non-compliance with the filing timeline for Form No. 67 was only procedural. The Tribunal also noted that Form No. 67 had subsequently been filed with the revised return and could not be ignored.

Conclusion: Foreign tax credit could not be denied solely on the ground of delayed filing of Form No. 67, and the assessee was entitled to credit upon verification.

Ratio Decidendi: A substantive treaty-backed tax credit cannot be denied for a curable procedural default where the required form is subsequently filed and the governing provision does not make timely filing a condition precedent to the benefit.

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