Issue/Justification
In order to make the process of claim of TDS error free, a system was devised some years ago in 2009 and published vide circular no 2/2009, dated 21.05.2009. The relevant excerpt from the said circular is as follows:
“12. With a view to enabling the implementation of the aforesaid decision, the TDS and TCS payment and information reporting system has been redesigned vide Notificaion No. 858(E), dated 25th March, 2009 published in Official Gazette. The salient features of the new TDS and TCS payment and information reporting system are the following:—
(i) The new system has been harmonized for all deductors (including Central and State Governments). Therefore, like non-governmental tax deductors, every deductor in the Central and State Government have also been made responsible for making direct payment of TDS in the bank. They are no longer allowed to make payments of the TDS and TCS by making book adjustments or consolidated payments. As a result, the TDS payment and information reporting system will be uniform across deductors.
(ii) Rule 30 and Rule 37CA of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 have been substituted to provide, inter alia, for the following :—t
(a) All sums of tax deducted at source under Chapter XVII-B and of tax collected at source under Chapter XVII-BB shall, in general, be paid to the credit of the Central Government within one week from the end of the month in which the deduction, or collection, is made. Similarly, the same time-limit for payment will also apply for income-tax due under sub-section (1A) of section 192.
(b) It is mandatory for all deductors (including Central Government and State Governments) to pay the amount by electronically remitting it into the RBI, SBI or any authorized bank.
(c) It is mandatory for all deductors (including Central Government and State Governments) to make the payment by electronically furnishing an income-tax challan in Form No. 17.
(iii) In the process of electronically furnishing the income-tax challan in Form No. 17, the deductor will be simultaneously required to furnish to the Taxpayer Information Network (TIN) system maintained by National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) either through screen based upload or file upload, three basic information relating to the deduction i.e., PAN, name of the deductee and amount of TDS/TCS.
(iv) Upon successful remittance of the TDS/TCS to Central Government account and the uploading of the basic information as mentioned above to the TIN system, every deduction record will be assigned a Unique Transaction Number (UTN).
(v) NSDL will create a facility to e-mail the UTN file to the deductor if the e-mail address of the deductor is available with them. In addition, they will also create a facility for the deductor to download the UTN file.
(vi) The UTN will be required to be quoted by the deductor on the TDS/TCS certificate issued by him to the deductee.
(vii) NSDL will also create a facility to allow independent viewing of the UTNs by the deductee.
(viii) With a view to enabling the Income-tax Department to monitor compliance by the deductor with the TDS provisions, every person (including Central Government and State Government) who has obtained a Tax Deduction or Collection Account Number (TAN) shall electronically furnish a quarterly statement of compliance with TDS provisions in Form No. 24C. It is mandatory for all TAN holders to furnish this form irrespective of whether any payment liable to TDS has been made or not. This form shall be furnished on or before the 15th July, the 15th October, the 15th January in respect of the first three quarters of the financial year, respectively, and on or before the 15th June following the last quarter of the financial year. This e-form No. 24C has to be furnished at http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. The first quarter in respect f which Form 24C is required to be furnished is the quarter ending on 30th June, 2009.
(ix) In order to enable the deductor to furnish the UTN to the deductee, the existing Form 16 and Form 16A have been appropriately modified.
(x) The quarterly returns of TDS and TCS hitherto required to be filed in Form No. 24Q, Form No. 26Q, Form No. 27Q and Form No. 27EQ shall now be required to be filed for all quarters on or before the 15th June following the financial year. Effectively, the quarterly returns have now been replaced by an annual return.”
As is clear from the above reproduced para from the said circular, the proposed method will automatically verify each payment of TDS made by deductor and will reduce the duplicacy done while filing quarterly TDS statements. The above method will effectively lead to an annual TDS return instead of quarterly TDS statements currently
Suggestion
The mentioned circular is suggested to be implemented with appropriate modifications in light of the current technological advancements.
