2016 (1) TMI 164

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.... 29-09-2014 upholding levy of late filing fees amounting to Rs. 9,620/-, Rs. 74,210/- Rs. 15,320/-, Rs. 24,260/-, Rs. 20,480/-, Rs. 19,170/- and Rs. 14,580/- respectively, in proceedings u/s. 234E of the Income Tax Act, 1961 in short the "Act". 2. We notice at the outset that the solitary issue as raised in all these appeals is that of section 234E levy arising from late filing fees. We notice that a co-ordinate bench decision in ITAs Nos 3274 to 3276/Ahd/2014 Lions Club of North Surat Charitable Trust Vs. ITO decided on 03-09-2015 holds the impugned fee to be not leviable before 01-06-2015 as under:- "2. Although the assessee has raised as many as 16 grounds of appeal in all these three appeals, the short grievance of the asses....

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....ting stay on the demands raised in respect of fees under section 234E. The full text of these decisions were not produced before us. However, as admittedly there are no orders from the Hon'ble Courts above retraining us from our adjudication on merits in respect of the issues in this appeal, and as, in our humble understanding, this appeal requires adjudication on a very short legal issue, within a narrow compass of material facts, we are proceeding to dispose of this appeal on merits. 5. We may produce, for ready reference, section 234E of the Act, which was inserted by the Finance Act 2012 and was brought into effect from 1st July 2012. This statutory provision is as follows: 234E. Fee for defaults in furnishing statemen....

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....d to in this section as deductor) under section 200, such statement shall be processed in the following manner, namely:- (a) the sums deductible under this Chapter shall be computed after making the following adjustments, namely:- (i) any arithmetical error in the statement; or (ii) an incorrect claim, apparent from any information in the statement; (b) the interest, if any, shall be computed on the basis of the sums deductible as computed in the statement; (c) the sum payable by, or the amount of refund due to, the deductor shall be determined after adjustment of amount computed under clause (b) against any amount paid under section 200 and section 201, and any amount paid otherwise by way of ta....

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.... (1), for clauses (c) to (e), the following clauses shall be substituted with effect from the 1st day of June, 2015, namely:- "(c) the fee, if any, shall be computed in accordance with the provisions of section 234E; (d) the sum payable by, or the amount of refund due to, the deductor shall be determined after adjustment of the amount computed under clause (b) and clause (c) against any amount paid under section 200 or section 201 or section 234E and any amount paid otherwise by way of tax or interest or fee; (e) an intimation shall be prepared or generated and sent to the deductor specifying the sum determined to be payable by, or the amount of refund due to, him under clause (d); and (f) the am....

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....w as it existed at that point of time. 10. In view of the above discussions, in our considered view, the adjustment in respect of levy of fees under section 234E was indeed beyond the scope of permissible adjustments contemplated under section 200A. This intimation is an appealable order under section 246A(a), and, therefore, the CIT(A) ought to have examined legality of the adjustment made under this intimation in the light of the scope of the section 200A. Learned CIT(A) has not done so. He has justified the levy of fees on the basis of the provisions of Section 234E. That is not the issue here. The issue is whether such a levy could be effected in the course of intimation under section 200A. The answer is clearly in negative. No....