TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (8) TMI 1550
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....ismissing the assessee's appeal in respect of levy of late fee u/s.234E of the Act. 3. Brief facts of the case are that in all the above appeals under consideration, admittedly there was a delay in filing of TDS statement and during the processing of TDS return, the AO(TDS) raised demand by way of intimations issued u/s.200A of the Act for levy of fees u/s.234E for delayed filing of TDS statement for Quarter 4 in the A.Y.2013-2014, for Quarters 1 to 4 in the assessment year 2014-2015, for Quarters 1 to 4 in the assessment year 2015-2016 and for Quarter 1 in the assessment year 2016-2017, respectively and passed order dated 04.09.2015. 4. Aggrieved by the order of AO, the assessee filed appeals before the CIT(A). The CIT(A) after consi....
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....ointed out by the Ld. Counsel for the assessee that this issue is no longer res integra since the Hon'ble Karnataka High Court in Fatehraj Singhvi v. Union of India (289 CTR 0602) has held that w.e.f. 01.06.2015, the Parliament by way of an amendment to Section 200A of the Act, has empowered the AO to levy fee u/s 234E of the Act while processing u/s 200A of the Act. Therefore, prior to that date i.e.01.06 .2015, the AO had no authority to levy fee u/s 234E of the Act. Therefore, according to the contention of the Ld. Counsel for the assessee, that the AO erred in levying the fee u/s 234E of the Act which been wrongly confirmed by the Ld. CIT(A) and, therefore, the impugned orders of the Ld. CIT(A) need to deleted. 6. On the ot....
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....ct in purported exercise of the power u/s 200A of the Act. The assessee challenged the levy of the fee and also the vires of the statute (Section 234E). The Hon'ble High Court did not make any finding in respect of the vires of the statute and the said issue was left open. However, the Hon'ble High Court held that prior to 01.06.2015, the AO while issuing intimation u/s 200A does not have the authority under law, to make any order u/s 243E of the Act and was pleased to delete the order of levy of late fee u/s 234E of the Act. The Hon'ble High Court held as follows In para 22 to 24 which is reproduced as under: 22. It is hardly required to be stated that, as per the well established principles of interpretation of statut....
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....h, it is on account of the intimation given making demand of the fees in purported exercise of power under Section 200A, the same has necessitated the appellant-original petitioner to challenge the validity of Section 234E of the Act. In view of the reasons recorded by us hereinabove, when the amendment made under Section 200A of the Act which has come into effect on 1.6.2015 is held to be having prospective effect, no computation of fee for the demand or the intimation for the fee under Section 234E could be made for the TDS deducted for the respective assessment year prior to 1.6.2015. Hence, the demand notices under Section 200A by the respondentauthority for intimation for payment of fee under Section 234E can be said as without any aut....
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....Y.2013-2014, for Quarters 1 to 4 in the assessment year 2014-2015 and for Quarters 1 to 4 in the assessment year 2015-2016 are coming under the purview of amendment to Section 200(3) of the Act. Therefore, the fee levied u/s.234E of the Act while processing the statement of tax deducted at source was beyond the scope provided under Section 200A of the Act. Accordingly, we respectfully follow the judicial precedent and set aside the orders of lower authorities and delete the levy of fee u/s.234E of the Act in Quarter 4 in the A.Y.2013-2014, for Quarters 1 to 4 in the assessment year 2014-2015 and for Quarters 1 to 4 in the assessment year 2015- 2016 and allow the appeals i.e ITA Nos.323 to 331/CTK/2018 filed by the assessee. 9. With regar....