Vedanta Ltd. Vs ACIT (ITAT Delhi)
The Delhi Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal considered the assessee’s appeal against the order dated 12.04.2019 passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax-IX, New Delhi, for Assessment Year 2012-13.
The dispute concerned the assessee’s claim of credit for dividends received from subsidiaries, which resulted in excess Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) being paid by the assessee. The Tribunal clarified that the issue was not one concerning refund of DDT per se. Rather, it concerned refund of the excess credit of dividend tax paid over and above the actual amount payable.
The Tribunal also distinguished the claim from a situation where the assessee sought to claim dividend tax itself as an expenditure. According to the Tribunal, the assessee was seeking refund of the excess dividend tax actually paid after taking into account the dividend received from subsidiaries.
On this basis, the Tribunal directed that the matter be sent to the file of the Assessing Officer to issue the refund in accordance with the provisions of law at the earliest.
The appeal was consequently allowed for statistical purposes. The Tribunal’s order therefore resulted in restoration of the matter to the Assessing Officer for giving effect to the refund direction rather than the Tribunal itself quantifying or directly issuing the refund.
