As rightly submitted by the learned DR, one of the reasons given by the AO for making disallowance u/s 40(a)(ia) was that the payment of freight charges was made by the assessee on account of air fare and not shipping charges and even the said air fare was not directly paid to the airlines but the same was paid to the different parties who acted as freight booking agents.

In the instant case, the ITO(TDS) while going through the quarterly return in Form No.26Q, filed by the assessee noted that it has omitted to quote PAN/had quoted invalid PAN in 196 cases. As regards the reasonable cause,it was pleaded on behalf of the assessee that TDS was deducted and deposited in time in government Treasury. The default is only with regard to the wrong quoting of PAN of 196 of the deductees, such deductees quoted wrong PAN.

A literal reading of sec. 195A implies that the income should be increased at the rates in force for the financial years and not the rates at which the tax is to be withheld by the assessee. The Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of GE India Technology (cited Supra) has held that the meaning and effect has to be given to the expression used in the section and while interpreting a section, one has to give weightage to every word used in that section.

At time when query was raised under the head ‘Selling & Distribution Expenditure’, had there been insistence that TDS was required to be deducted and the amount specified to the tune of Rs. 22,70,869 was not required to be allowed as Trade Incentive without deducting TDS, the same ought to have been reflected somewhere in the computation of income and that would have bearing on the computation itself.

Section 192 deals with the deduction of tax at source. It is computed on the estimated income of the assessee under the head ‘salary’ and the liability is at the time of payment of salary, if there is a perquisite, there is responsibility to deduct tax of the employer under section 192(1), 192(1A) and 192(1B). Perquisite is actually not a payment of salary but a benefit not in terms of money.

The CBDT has taken serious view of non-filers (of tax deducted at source) and has incorporated a new section 234E in the Act which levies a fee of Rs 200 for everyday of delay and the system does not accept the TDS statement until the delay fee has been paid

Section 40(a)(ia) of the Act refers only to the duty to deduct tax and pay to government account. If there is any shortfall due to any difference of opinion as to the taxability of any item or the nature of payments falling under various TDS provisions, the assessee can be declared to be an assessee in default u/s. 201 of the Act and no disallowance can be made by invoking the provisions of section 40(a)(ia) of the Act.

We have heard both the parties and gone through the material available on record. We have also gone through the Tax Audit Report in Form No.3CD placed at Pages 20 to 49 of the Paper Book. Annexure-XIV of the Tax Audit report gives the details of tax deductible under various sections of the Act. Page 1 of Annexure-XIV gives the details of payments on which tax has not been deducted at all.

TRACES is a web-based application of the Income Tax Department that provides an interface to all stakeholders associated with TDS administration. It enables viewing of challan status, downloading of NSDL Conso File, Justification Report and Form 16 / 16A as well as viewing of annual tax credit statements (Form 26AS).

Scheme of the Act provides that after the employer deducts from the salary of the employee the tax and pays the same to the Central Government, a Tax Deduction Certificate is furnished to the employee and it is for the employee to claim before the Assessing Officer in the assessment proceedings and get a determination done and in case he succeeds before the Assessing Officer, he will be entitled to refund out of the amount of tax deducted at source by the employer.