Birla Corporation Limited Vs PCIT (Madhya Pradesh High Court)
Madhya Pradesh High Court held that the non-functionality of the TRACES Portal shall not be grounds for denying the benefit arising out of the statutory provision under the Income Tax Act.
Facts- The Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax-TDS initiated proceedings u/s. 201 (1)/ (1A) of the Income Tax Act. They assessed the tax liability of Rs.1,90,94,630/- and Rs.10,84,08,460/-(including interest) for the FY 2009-10, FY 2010-11 and 2011-12 from the petitioner for default of non-deduction of tax at source from the payments made on various remittances for purchase, installation and supervision charges.
CIT (A) who confirmed the demand by upholding the assessment order. Being aggrieved, the petitioner preferred an Appeal before ITAT. During the pendency of the Appeals, the Department asked the petitioner to deposit and the petitioner deposited the outstanding tax amount in instalments aggregating Rs. 1,45,00,000/- for FY 2009-10 and Rs.3,65,00,000/- for FY 2010-11 under protest. In addition to the above, the petitioner has also deposited a withholding TDS amount of Rs.15,03,299/-
After the aforesaid order passed by ITAT, the respondent passed the order for both the assessment year on 20.09.2022 u/s. 254 of the Income Tax Act for a refund of Rs.3,65,00,000/-. When the aforesaid amount was not paid, the petitioner submitted a representation dated 21.06.2023 to the Income Tax Officer (IT & TP), Bhopal for a refund of Rs.5,25,03,299/- and interest till date. Vide letter dated 11.07.2023, the Income Tax Officer, rejected the aforesaid request on the ground that the request for refund for the relevant assessment year can be raised, only if the assessee files its application on the TRACES Portal in the prescribed form i.e. Form 26B and secondly there is no provision available on the TRACES portal to adjust the outstanding demand of PAN or TAN against the pending refunds of the TAN and requested the petitioner to deposit the aforesaid demand, hence, present Writ Petition before this Court.
