TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (1) TMI 1791
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....assessee at the time of hearing submitted to consider ITA No.39/RPR/2017 as lead case. ITA No. 39/RPR/2017 A.Y.2014-15 3. The brief facts in ITA No. 39/RPR/2017 are that the assessee filed its TDS return late and therefore, the Assessing Officer imposed late filing fee of Rs. 1800/- u/s.234E of the Act. 4. Being aggrieved, the assessee filed appeal against the order under the aforesaid section. In the course of Appellate Proceedings, the Ld. AR submitted that writ petition filed against demand raised u/s.234E of the Act has been stayed by different high courts like Honble High Court of Rajasthan in the case of Om Prakash Dhoot Vs. UOI, WPN 1981/214, High Court of Kerala in W.P.C. No.31498/2013 (J), High Court of Karnataka in the case of Aditya Bizorp Vs. UOI in WP No.6918/6938/2014 in I.T. Order dated 19.02.2014 and Honble High Court of Madhya Pradesh in the case of Shree Builders Vs. UOI in W.P. No.11831/2014. The Ld. AR of the assessee further submitted that all High Courts have stayed for the constitutional validity of section 234E of the Act. 5. The Ld. CIT(Appeals) has upheld the addition made u/s.234E of the Act as per discussion given in his order. 6. The Ld.AR o....
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....ee for defaults in furnishing statements (1) Without prejudice to the provisions of the Act, where a person fails to deliver or cause to be delivered a statement within the time prescribed in sub-section (3) of section 200 or the proviso to subsection (3) of section 206C, he shall be liable to pay, by way of fee, a sum of two hundred rupees for every day during which the failure continues. (2) The amount of fee referred to in sub-section (1) shall not exceed the amount of tax deductible or collectible, as the case may be. Chhattisgarh Gramin Bank (3) The amount of fee referred to in sub-section (1) shall be paid before delivering or causing to be delivered a statement in accordance with sub-section (3) of section 200 or the proviso to sub-section (3) of section 206C. (4) The provisions of this section shall apply to a statement referred to in sub-section (3) of section 200 or the proviso to sub-section (3) of section 206C which is to be delivered or caused to be delivered for tax deducted at source or tax collected at source, as the case may be, on or after the 1st day of July, 2012. 6. We may also reproduce the Section 200A which was inserted by the Finance Act 2009 with effect....
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....nt in Section 200A and this amendment, as stated in the Finance Act 2015, is as follows: In section 200A of the Income-tax Act, in sub-section (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 amount of refund due to the deductor in pursuance of the determination under clause (d) shall be granted to the deductor. 8. In effect thus, post 1st June 2015, in the course of processing of a TDS statement and issuance of intimation under section 200A in respect thereof, an adjustment could also be made in respect of the fee, if any, shall be compute....
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....n made at best within 31st March 2015. That time has already elapsed and the defect is thus not curable even at this stage. In view of these discussions, as alsobearing in mind entirety of the case, the impugned levy of fees under section 234E is unsustainable in law. We, therefore, uphold the grievance of the assessee and delete the impugned levy of fee under section 234E of the Act. The assessee gets the relief accordingly. 9. Thereafter, the decision of the Tribunal in that case is as follows: 4. When attention of the learned Departmental Representative was invited to the above judicial precedent, he fairly accepts that the issue is covered against the Revenue by the aforesaid judicial precedent. He however relied upon the stand of the authorities below. We see no reasons to take any other view of the matter than the view so taken by the co-ordinate Bench. Respectfully, following the same, we hold that the learned CIT(A) was indeed in error in upholding the levy of processing fees under section 234E by way of intimation under section 200A of the Act. We, therefore, quash the impugned demands. Assessees get the relief accordingly. 5. In the result, all these ....