Prospective levy of fee under section 234E barred for TDS statements processed before 01.06.2015.

Fee under section 234E could not be levied while processing TDS statements under section 200A for periods prior to 01.06.2015 because the enabling provision was inserted only by the Finance Act, 2015 with prospective effect from that date. The tribunal treated the amendment as prospective and held that, for statements processed before 01.06.2015, the statutory mechanism did not authorise levy of the fee. The levy was therefore deleted in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether fee under section 234E could be levied while processing TDS statements under section 200A for periods prior to 01.06.2015.

Analysis: The processing provision in section 200A was amended by Finance Act, 2015 with effect from 01.06.2015 to expressly empower levy of fee under section 234E at the time of processing TDS statements. For periods before that date, the statutory mechanism did not contain an enabling provision for such levy. The amendment was therefore treated as prospective, and the levy of fee for defaults relating to statements processed before 01.06.2015 was held unsustainable.

Conclusion: Fee under section 234E could not be levied for TDS statements processed prior to 01.06.2015, and the levy was deleted in favour of the assessee.

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