Case Law Details
Income Tax Department Vs Parsvnath Developers Ltd. (Delhi House Court)
The tax deducted as source cannot be equated with the payment of other liabilities like service tax or sales tax whose payment may be dependent upon the actual realization of money. TDS is deducted in advance by the assessed before making any payment for the scheduled items. The assessee acts as custodian of tax/TDS amount and needs to deposit the same within stipulated period as per Rule 30. Merely because the business suffered from recession and the working capital stifled, cannot be a termed as sufficient cause for non-payment of TDS amount. A company cannot be permitted to use the TDS amount for channelizing and fulfilling its working capital deficit. DW1 Sh Ashish Verma in his cross examination admitted that the company was making payment of various loans to its directors and its associate companies during the relevant period. Therefore, when the company is able to discharge its other liabilities, the ground for recession cannot be cited as an excuse for nonpayment of the TDS amount. In the sanction order Ex CW1/2 the CIT (TDS) has also appreciated the financial exigencies cited by the company and has concluded that the payment of TDS has nothing to do with the liquidity of the deductor company. Though the audit reports DW1/3 to DW1/6 specifies the liabilities and the loans of the accused no 1 company, but it does not pinpoint the reasons for failure make the payment of TDS amount.
Reasonable cause would mean a cause which prevents a reasonable man of ordinary prudence acting under normal circumstances, without negligence or inaction or for want of bonafide. In present facts and circumstances the company has failed to show any circumstances which has prevented the company from payment of TDS amount especially when the payment to the associate companies and directors were continuing. Merely because there was recession in the market cannot be considered as reasonable cause for non-compliances because a company is supposed to keep its working capital reserves or overdraft facilities to meet these lean period patches. The case of the accused company is clearly not covered u/s 278AA Income Tax Act, 1961 and accordingly the accused no 1 company is convicted for the offence u/s 276 B Income Tax Act, 1961 for delay in depositing the of the TDS amount.
FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER OF DELHI HIGH COURT
1. The present complaint was filed u/s 276 B read with Section 278 B of the Income Tax Act, 1961 against accused no. 1 company and accused no. 2 Pradeep Kumar Jain being its Chairman and Managing Director. The complaint was filed by authorized representative Ms. Sudha Yadav, ACIT.
Please become a Premium member. If you are already a Premium member, login here to access the full content.
