Under the existing scheme of payment of TDS and TCS, Government deductors/collectors are allowed to make payment of tax deducted/collected by them without production of challan i.e. through book entry. For payment of tax deducted/collected through book entry, the Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO) intimates the TDS/TCS amount to the Pay and Accounts Officer or the Treasury Officer or the Cheque Drawing and Disbursing Officer (PAO/TO/CDDO) who credits the TDS/TCS amount to the credit of Central Government through book entry. For generating credit for TDS/TCS paid through book entry by the Government deductors, a system of capturing information from PAO/TO/CDDO has been introduced by amending rule 30 and rule 37CA of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 with effect from 1.4.2010. The said rules provide that the PAO/TO/CDDO shall file the detail of payment of TDS/TCS made through book entry in the prescribed Form 24G. This system of reporting of payment of TDS/TCS made through book entry has improved the mechanism of reporting of TDS/TCS by the Government deductor to some extent. However, in the absence of any specific provisions in the Act for enforcing the same, it has been noticed that in a large number of cases, PAO/ TO/CDDOs do not file Form 24G in prescribed time. Delay in furnishing of the Form 24G results into delay in furnishing of the TDS/TCS statement by the DDO. In order to improve the reporting of payment of TDS/TCS made through book entry and to make existing mechanism enforceable, it is proposed to amend the provisions of sections 200 and 206C of the Act to provide that where the tax deducted [including paid under section 192(1A)] / collected has been paid without the production of a challan, the PAO/ TO/CDDO or any other person by whatever name called who is responsible for crediting such sum to the credit of the Central Government, shall furnish within the prescribed time a prescribed statement for the prescribed period to the prescribed income-tax authority or the person authorised by such authority by verifying the same in the prescribed manner and setting forth prescribed particulars. To ensure compliance of this proposed obligation of filing statement, it is proposed to amend the provisions of section 272A of the Act so as to provide for a penalty of Rs.100/- for each day of default during which the default continues subject to the limit of the amount deductible or collectible in respect of which the statement is to be furnished.
Under section 192 of the Act, the person responsible for paying (DDO) income chargeable under the head “salaries” under the Act is authorised to allow certain deductions, exemptions or allowances or set-off of certain loss as per the provisions of the Act for the purposes of estimating income of the assessee or computing the amount of the tax deductible under the said section. The evidence/proof/particulars for some of the deductions/exemptions/allowances/set-off of loss claimed by the employee such as rent receipt for claiming exemption of HRA, evidence of interest payments for claiming loss from self occupied house property etc. is generally not available with the DDO. In these circumstances, the DDO has to depend upon the evidence/particulars furnished, if any, by the employees in support of their claim of deductions, exemptions, etc. As the existing provisions of the Act do not contain any guidance regarding nature of evidence/documents to be obtained by the DDO, there is no uniformity in the approach of the DDO in this matter. In order to bring clarity in this matter, it is proposed to amend the provisions of section 192
of the Act to provide that the person responsible for paying, for the purposes of estimating income of the assessee or computing tax deductible under section 192(1) of the Act, shall obtain from the assessee evidence or proof or particulars of the prescribed claim (including claim for set-off of loss) under the provisions of the Act in the prescribed form and manner.
The existing provisions of sub-section (6) of section 195 of the Act provide that the person referred to in section 195(1) of the Act shall furnish prescribed information. Section 195(1) of the Act provides that any person responsible for paying any interest (other than interest referred to in sections 194LB or 194LC or 194LD of the Act) or any sum chargeable to tax (not being salary income) to a non-resident, not being a company, or to a foreign company, shall deduct tax at the rates in force. The mechanism of obtaining of information in respect of remittances fulfils twin objectives of ensuring deduction of tax at appropriate rate from taxable remittances as well as identifying the remittances on which the tax was deductible but the payer has failed to deduct the tax. Therefore, obtaining of information only in respect of remittances which the remitter declared as taxable defeats one of themain principles of obtaining information for foreign remittances i.e. to identify the taxable remittances on which tax was deductible but was not deducted. In view of this, it is proposed to amend the provisions of section 195 of the Act to provide that the person responsible for paying any sum, whether chargeable to tax or not, to a non-resident, not being a company, or to a foreign company, shall be required to furnish the information of the prescribed sum in such form and manner as may be prescribed. Further, currently there is no provision for levying of penalty for non-submission/inaccurate submission of the prescribed information in respect of remittance to non-resident. For ensuring submission of accurate information in respect of remittance to non-resident, it is further proposed to insert a new provision in the Act to provide that in case of non-furnishing of information or furnishing of incorrect information under sub-section (6) of section 195(6) of the Act, a penalty of one lakh rupees shall be levied. It is also proposed to amend the provisions of section 273B of the Act to provide that no penalty shall be imposable under this new provision if it is proved that there was reasonable cause for non-furnishing or incorrect furnishing of information under sub-section (6) of section 195 of the Act.
These amendments will take effect from 1st June, 2015.
[Clauses 37, 38, 40, 48, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 62,73, 74 & 75]