TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2009 (4) TMI 91
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.... no time for anything else. (ii) The petitioner has a very humble beginning in the industry. His peak period has been from 1992 to 1998, during which, he spent most of his time in Hyderabad and normally worked 16 hours a day and because of his commitment, he could not comply with certain obligations, especially those pertaining to payment of Income Tax. It is the plea of the petitioner that the non-compliance of payment of Income Tax returns is neither wilful nor wanton, but only due to the aforesaid bonafide reasons. (iii) The petitioner filed his returns of income voluntarily for the assessment years, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96 and 1996-97 and the Assessing Officer accepted the returns filed under Section 143(3) read with Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and also levied interest under Sections 234A, 234B and 234C. According to the petitioner, the said assessments and demand notice suffered from several arithmetical errors and hence, he filed petitions under Section 154 to the Assessing Officer in respect of assessment years 1994-95, 1995-96 and 1996-97 and appeal in respect of the assessment year 1993-1994. (iv) Aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner filed a W....
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....ant for the purpose of waiver of interest in terms of the Board's Notification. 3b. It is the case of the 1st respondent that the argument of the petitioner with regard to waiver of interest is untenable as interest under Sections 234A and 234B is charged for different reasons. Only since the delay of three months in filing the returns by the petitioner was acceptable, waiver of interest was allowed under Section 234A for the said assessment year. He also stated that interest under Section 234B is levied till the date of assessment and as far as the interest under Section 234C is concerned, the assessee had not paid the advance tax and therefore is not liable for waiver of interest. The 1st respondent specifically mentioned that the powers of the Chief Commissioner are not unlimited as have been made out and they have to act within the terms of Board's Notification. 4. The 2nd respondent, Tax Recovery Officer-X, Chennai has also filed counter, wherein, he has stated that the averment of the petitioner that he has filed returns voluntarily is not correct. According to the 2nd respondent, notices under Section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act was sent to the petitioner calling for ....
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....hin the time limit statutorily available to him and hence, the order impugned in the present writ petitions is correct, legal and is a reasoned one. 5. Heard Mr.R.Sivaraman, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr.Arunkurien Joseph, learned Junior Standing Counsel appearing for the respondents. 6. Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner had filed the returns on income voluntarily without detection by the Assessing Officer and that the returns could not be filed by the petitioner in time due to unavoidable circumstances. According to him, the case of the petitioner would squarely fall within para 2(e) of the Notification dated 23.05.1996 in F.No.400/234/95-IT(B). He would contend that the 1st respondent herein, by his impugned order dated 29.03.2004, without considering the twin conditions, namely, the unavoidable circumstances in filing the returns and such returns whether filed voluntarily without any detection by the Assessing Officer, granted partial waiver of interest under Sections 234A and 234B, rejected the entire waiver relating to Section 234C interest. 6a. Learned counsel would contend that the 1st respondent had been granted ....
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....f income specified in para 2 of the order. The condition precedent is that reduction or waiver of such interest can be ordered only after the assessee has filed the return of income for the relevant assessment year and paid the entire tax due on the income as assessed except the amount of interest for which reduction or waiver has been requested for. ... 9. ... The original petitioner had clearly stated in her waiver petition that the delay in filing the return was on account of the fact that there was delay in arranging for funds. In this set of tragic circumstances, if the same have been considered to be unavoidable circumstances for the purpose of waiver of interest under s.234A of the Act, in the facts of this case, the Court is of the view that the same would have to be considered as unavoidable circumstances for the purpose of reduction/waiver of interest under ss.234B and 234C as well. The reasoning of the Chief CIT that clause (e) of the notification only deals with the late filing of return of income overlooks the rationale for conferring the power of reduction/waiver of interest. ... Under the circumstances, when the assessee is able to satisfy the Chief CIT that th....
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....to the first respondent." (iii) yet another decision of this court reported in (2009) 308 ITR 216 in the case of T. N. Arumugam vs. Chief Commissioner of Income Tax and another "7. In the light of the above, the petitioner is entitled to succeed. However, this court is not in granting any direction to refund the amount as originally prayed for in the writ petition. It is suffice to say that the first respondent shall consider the circumstances under which the petitioner was unable to pay the tax earlier and also the jurisdiction for his seeking for waiver and refund of the interest amount paid. The petitioner also shall be given an opportunity by the first respondent to put forth any additional points in his favour. The first respondent shall consider the representation of the petitioner and also any additional representation made by him and pass an appropriate order within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order." 7. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondents would submit that the petitioner had filed his returns for the assessment year 1993-94 on 13.03.1996 only with a delay of more than 2 = years and therefore, the interest un....
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....ndatory in nature CIT vs. Anjum M. H. Ghaswala (2001) 252 ITR 11 (SC). There is no provision in the Act authorising any authority to reduce or waive it. However, in order to mitigate the hardships in deserving cases, the Board, in exercise of powers conferred under clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 119 of the Act, has issued a Circular/Notification No.400/234/95-IT/B dated 23.05.1996, empowering the Chief Commissioner and the Director General, Income Tax, to waive or reduce the interest chargeable under Section 234B and two other sections in the class of cases or class of incomes, specified in paragraph 2 thereof for the period and to the extent the Chief Commissioner/Director General deem fit, subject to fulfillment of the conditions enumerated therein. Clause (d) of paragraph (2) of the said notification prescribed the following conditions for waiver/reduction of interest under Section 234B : "(a) any income was not chargeable to tax on the basis of any order passed in the case of the assessee by the jurisdictional High Court. (b) in view of such decision, the assessee did not pay income-tax in relation to such income during the previous year. (c) subsequently, su....
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....,051/- against the amount of Rs.3,00,832/- under Section 234A and in respect of Section 234B, he granted only a sum of Rs.77,729/- as relief as against Rs.6,06,504/- and confirmed the levy of interest of Rs.23,898/- under Section 234C of the I.T. Act. Aggrieved by the said order of the 1st respondent, the petitioner has filed the present writ petition seeking waiver of interest in full, for the assessment years 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96 and 1996-97. 11. The question that arises for consideration is whether the petitioner is entitled to complete waiver of interest on the returns of income under Sections 234A, 234B and 234C of the I.T. Act. 12. Before dealing with the above question, it would be useful to refer to the relevant provisions under Sections 234 (A), (B) and (C) of the I.T. Act, as extracted hereunder: 234 A. (1) Where the return of income for any assessment year under sub-section (1) or sub-section (4) of section 139, or in response to a notice under sub-section (1) of section 142, is furnished after the due date, or is not furnished, the assessee shall be liable to pay simple interest at the rate of one per cent for every month or part of a month comprised in th....
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....his sub-section shall apply to any shortfall in the payment of the tax due on the returned income where such shortfall is on account of under-estimate or failure to estimate (a) the amount of capital gains : or (b) income of the nature referred to in sub-clause (ix) of clause (24) of section 2, and the assessee has paid the whole of the amount of tax payable in respect of income referred to in clause (a) or clause (b), as the case may be, had such income been a part of the total income, as part of the [remaining instalments of advance tax which are due or where no such instalments are due], by the 31st day of March of the financial year:]" 13. From the reading of the above provisions, it is clear that the return of income for any assessment year under sub-section (1) or sub-section (4) of section 139, or in response to a notice under sub-section (1) of section 142, is furnished after the due date, the assessee shall be liable to pay simple interest at the rate of one per cent for every month. It is also clear that when an assessee, who is liable to pay advance tax under Section 208 has failed to pay such tax or the advance tax paid by such assessee is less than ninety p....
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....d his commitment in the industry to work for hours together is not in dispute by the respondents. However, the delay attributable by the petitioner that due to 'busy schedule', he had failed to file the returns in time is the cause of action. It is seen that though there is a delay in filing the returns, the petitioner had filed the returns voluntarily. Naturally, a person in cinema industry is continuously committed to work. Likewise, in the case on hand, the petitioner had been committed to his work and due to some unavoidable circumstances, he could not file the returns within the prescribed time limit. However, he had filed applications separately for condoning the delay in filing the returns for each of the said assessment years. The issue that has to be looked into is whether the reason assigned by the petitioner that due to 'busy schedule' he could not file the returns in time can be construed as 'unavoidable circumstances'. 17. From the facts of the case, it is clear that the petitioner is not a habitual defaulter in filing Income Tax returns. The reasons assigned by him is that 'due to circumstances beyond his control' can be construed as "unavoidable circumstances". Th....