Parag Keshav Bopardikar Vs ITO (Delhi High Court)
The Delhi High Court considered a writ petition filed by a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) seeking quashing of impugned orders and directions to grant full credit of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) deducted and deposited by the buyers of his residential property, along with consequential refund, by reading down the internal SOP No. CPC(TDS)/26QB/Credit Transfer dated 12.07.2022.
The petitioner had purchased a residential property in Pune in 1998 and sold it on 08.09.2015 for ₹2.00 crore. The buyers deducted ₹18,68,177 as TDS and credited ₹1,81,31,823 to the petitioner’s bank account. The petitioner computed his income tax liability at ₹1,91,780, paid the same as advance tax, repatriated the balance sale proceeds to the USA, but did not file his income tax return for the relevant period. Subsequently, the Assessing Officer issued a notice under Section 148A(b) alleging escaped income. The petitioner responded by stating that the tax liability had already been discharged. However, the Assessing Officer passed an order under Section 148A(d) and issued a notice under Section 148.
The petitioner later discovered that Form 26AS reflected a TDS credit of only ₹2,00,000 instead of ₹18,68,177. The buyers informed him that although the entire TDS amount had been deposited with the Government, they had mistakenly filed Form 26QB, applicable to resident transactions, instead of Form 27Q applicable to NRIs, and thereafter approached the bank for correction of the TDS challan.
