Refund: Interest: S/s. 237 and 243 : A. Y. 2010-11: Assessee, a civil contractor, receiving payments from Govt. Depts. after TDS: CPC issuing only part of refund: Mismatch between details uploaded by deductor and details furnished by assessee in return: Mismatch not attributable to assessee: Assessee entitled to refund with interest:

The
assessee is a civil contractor. In the previous year relevant to the A.
Y. 2010-11, the assessee had received certain payments from Government
Departments from which a total sum of Rs. 3,14,766/- was deducted as tax
at source by the Government Departments. The assessee filed the return
of income and claimed refund of Rs. 2,32,370/-. The Central Processing
Centre, Bangalore, issued a refund of Rs. 43,740/-. No intimation was
given to the assessee as to why the balance amount of Rs. 1,88,630/- was
not refundable. Assessee’s application u/s. 154 of the Income-tax Act,
1961 for refund of the balance did not get any response.

Therefore,
the assessee filed a writ petition praying for a writ of mandamus for
the balance refund with interest. The Allahabad High Court allowed the
writ petition and held as under:

“i) No effort was made by the
Assessing officer to verify whether the deductor had made the payment of
the tax deducted at source in the Government account. There was a
mismatch between the details uploaded by the deductor and the details
given by the assessee in the return. The assessee suffered the tax
deduction at source but had not been given due credit in spite of the
fact that he had been issued a tax deducted at source certificate by a
Government Department.
ii) T here was presumption that the deductor
had deposited the tax deducted at source amount in the Government
account especially when the deductor is a Government Department.
iii)
Denying the benefit of the tax deducted at source to the assessee
because of the fault of the deductor not only caused harassment and
inconvenience but also made the assessee feel cheated.
iv) T here was
no fault on the part of the assessee. The fault, if any, lay with the
deductor. Nothing had been indicated that the fault lay with the
assessee in furnishing false details. Therefore, the authority was to
refund an amount of Rs. 1,88,631/- with interest in accordance with the
law.”