Srikanth Atluri Vs ITO (ITAT Visakhapatnam)
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Visakhapatnam, allowed the appeal of the assessee and directed the Assessing Officer (AO) to grant Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) under Section 90 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, despite the delayed filing of Form No. 67. The Tribunal also condoned a delay of 51 days in filing the appeal before it after finding that the assessee had demonstrated sufficient cause for the delay.
The assessee, a non-resident individual employed in the United Kingdom, filed the return of income for Assessment Year 2021-22 declaring total income of ₹31,51,720 and claimed Foreign Tax Credit of ₹5,73,915 by filing Form No. 67 on 19 November 2022. The return had earlier been processed under Section 143(1) without granting the FTC because Form No. 67 had not been filed at that time. Subsequently, the assessee filed a rectification application under Section 154 seeking reprocessing of the return after filing Form No. 67. However, the Centralized Processing Centre rejected the claim by not considering the belatedly filed form. The Commissioner (Appeals) upheld the rejection, relying on an earlier Tribunal decision which held that Form No. 67 must be filed within the time prescribed under Rule 128(9) of the Income-tax Rules.
