Income tax - interest - Refund due and payable to the assessee is debt-owed and payable by the Revenue. :Supreme Court
RECENTLY, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgement on interest payable on Income Tax refunds. The issues before the Apex Court are - Whether the statutory obligation to refund carries with it the right to interest also; Whether when the assessee deposits tax as per an order passed u/s 195(2), the Revenue is under obligation to pay interest on refund processed as per the appellate order and Whether interest obligation arises for the Revenue in every case where excess tax paid has been retained by the State for its own enjoyment.
The Supreme Court observed, "providing for payment of interest in case of refund of amounts paid as tax or deemed tax or advance tax is a method now statutorily adopted by fiscal legislation to ensure that the aforesaid amount of tax which has been duly paid in prescribed time and provisions in that behalf form part of the recovery machinery provided in a taxing Statute. Refund due and payable to the assessee is debt-owed and payable by the Revenue. The Government, there being no express statutory provision for payment of interest on the refund of excess amount/tax collected by the Revenue, cannot shrug off its apparent obligation to reimburse the deductors lawful monies with the accrued interest for the period of undue retention of such monies. The State having received the money without right, and having retained and used it, is bound to make the party good, just as an individual would be under like circumstances. The obligation to refund money received and retained without right implies and carries with it the right to interest. Whenever money has been received by a party which ought to be refunded, the right to interest follows, as a matter of course.
This will have far reaching consequences in all tax statutes.
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