Under the existing provisions of section 204 of the Income-tax Act, a “person responsible for paying” has been defined to include employer, company or its principal officer or the payer. There is a lack of clarity in the case of payment made by Central Government or by a State Government as to who is the person responsible for paying the sum to the payee.
In order to provide clarity to the meaning of “person responsible for paying” in case of payment by Central Government or a State Government, it is proposed to provide that in the case of payment by Central Government or a State Government, the Drawing and Disbursing Officer or any other person (by whatever name called) responsible for making payment shall be the “person responsible for paying” within the meaning of section 204.
This amendment will take effect from 1st July, 2012.