TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (9) TMI 1964
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.... Income Tax act, 1961 ('the Act') at INR 1902,76,89,334 and a tax liability of INR 4,79,55,85,000. The said tax liability was discharged by the assessee through payment of advance tax of INR 4,77,13,000/-, Self-assessment tax of INR 1,07,85,390/- Tax Collected at Source (TCS') of INR 1,38,327 and Tax Deducted at Source ('TDS') of INR 1,33,61,280. 3. Pursuant to filing the ROI, the assessee had received an intimation under section 143(1)(a) of the Act dated 14th December, 2022 from Centralized Processing Centre ('CPC') proposing adjustment of disallowance on account of delay in the payment of employees contribution to the provident fund ('PF') as per section 36(1)(va) of the Act amounting to INR 19,48,63,463. The assessee submitted its response on the income tax-filing portal against proposed adjustments on 4th January 2023. Subsequently, the assessee received intimation dated 16th March, 2023 under section 143(1) of the Act for the subject AY wherein the following additions were made to the returned income which resulted in the demand of INR 5,07,14,260 for the subject A.Y i.e. a. Disallowance on account of delay in the payment of emp....
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....s per Challan Date of Debit in Bank A/c Date of Challan 1 259160621002965 25,66,403 49,94,817 15-Jun-21 16-Jun-21 2 259160621002919 13,10,01,695 24,81,60,668 15-Jun-21 16-Jun-21 3 259160621002953 1 11,56,102 1 21,78,876 15-Jun-21 16-Jun-21 4 259160621002939 5,96,33,568 11,19,58,937 15-Jun-21 16-Jun-21 5 259160621005055 57,311 1,12,385 16-Jun-21(Non- seeding of Aadhar) 16-Jun-21 6 259160621005065 4,50,531 8,20,910 16-Jun-21 (Non- seeding of Aadhar) 16-Jun-21 With regard to Serial No. 1 to 4, the PF Payments amounting to INR 36,72,93,297 bearing challan numbers 259160621002965, 259160621002919, 259160621002953 & 259160621002939 (copy of payment receipt enclosed as Annexure 1) were duly debited from Appellant's bank account on 15 June 2021 i.e., within the due date. (Refer Page 183 of Factual Paper book) However, the date of e- challans was reflecting as 16 June 2021. The Appellant has deposited the PF contribution pertaining to May 2021 before the due date. However, due to technical glitch on the EPFO Portal on the due date i.e., 15 June 2021 the e-challan was gene....
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.... the Appellant had duly paid the PF contribution on or before the due date specified in the Employee Provident Fund Scheme as specified in explanation 1 to section 36(1)(va) of the Act. 13. Learned Authorized Representative for appellant/assessee submitted that the Hon'ble Delhi Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ('ITAT') in case of FIL India Business & Research Services (P.) Ltd. v. Deputy Commissioner of Income-tax ([2023] 154 taxmann.com 251) (Refer para 8 on page 207 of Legal Paper book has held that Assessee could not be penalized with addition on the account of delayed deposits when Assessee had initially deposited employee contribution before the prescribed due date but due to the glitches on the portal such amount was reversed by Bank. The relevant extracts of the judgment are provided below: '8. We are therefore of the view that when the assessee had initially deposited the employees dues before the prescribed due dates but due to the glitches at the end of the respective authorities, the amounts were reversed by the bank, then the assessee cannot be penalized with the addition on account of delayed deposits ...... ' Hon'ble High Court of ....
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....A) when the cheque was deposited within the due date in the Bank, however due to mistake of the Banker such cheque is cleared late. The relevant extracts of the judgement are provided below: "9 ..... We have heard the parties perused the material on record and gave our thoughtful consideration. The question as to 'whether the payment would be deemed to have been made on the date of handing over of cheque to the banker or on the date of clearance of cheque by debiting the Assessee's account for the purpose of tendering the TDS ...... 10. In the instance case, there is One day delay in debiting the amount from the Assessee's bank account which is apparently due to the mistake to the banker. Further by relying on the ratio laid down in the case of Standard Chartered Bank (supra) we are of the opinion that the payment of TDS by the assessee would relate bank to the date of presentation of the cheque i.e. on 31/07/2013 by the assessee to the banker." 14. Learned Authorized Representative for appellant/assessee regarding Serial No. 5 & 6 i.e. challan numbers bearing 259160621005055 & 259160621005065, submitted that payments of PF contribution were made on....
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....roduced below for your reference: 'The Field Offices are advised that delay in the filing of ECRs for wage month of May 2021 statutorily due on or before 15.06.2021 only in respect of EPF members due to non-seeding of Aadhaar in the UANs should not be presumed as employer's default and to appreciate each case in its own facts under Section 14B of the EPF & MP Act' As per above circular and challan evidencing the payment made towards PF contribution for employees whose Aadhar is not linked to their UAN, and due to persistent technical issues on the EPFO portal which were beyond the control of the Appellant on the due date had prevented the Appellant from generating the challans pertaining to employees whose Aadhar is not seeded with their UAN account. Hence considering the circumstances were beyond the control of the Appellant, the Ld. CIT(A) ought to have granted relief from the aforementioned disallowance. 15. Learned Authorized Representative for appellant/assessee submitted that, for the impugned AY the interest under section 234C of the Act was computed at INR 66,96,150 (Refer Page 33 of Factual Paper book) and was duly paid by the Appellant in its return....