Case Law on Section 234E

234E Fee deleted in the absent of the enabling provisions u/s 200A

The Hon'ble Amritsar bench has given a landmark judgement on the issue of 234E Fee levied prior to June,2015 in the case of Sibia Healthcare Private Limited v./s Dy. Commissioner of Income-tax (TDS), in I.T.A. No.90/Asr/2015 and has deleted the addition-

The Hon'ble Tribunal held as under:-

" 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 other  provision  enabling  a demand in respect of this levy has been pointed outto us and it is thus an admitted position that in the absence of the enabling provision under section 200A, no such levy  could  be  effected.  As  intimation  under  section 200A,  raising  a  demand  or directing a refund to the tax deductor, can only bepassed within one year from the end of the financial year within which the related  TDS statement is filed, and as the related TDS statement was filed on 19th February 2014, such a levy could only have been 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 also bearing 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."

CA Prarthana Jalan

Source: Taxguru