Director of a Delhi-based realty firm arrested

Tis Hazari Court has ordered judicial custody of the Director of a Delhi-based real estate and IT solution company for non-compliance in TDS default case, the finance ministry said in a statement today. This year the Principal Chief Commissionerate-New Delhi has sanctioned prosecution in approximately 240 cases "which clearly shows" the strict attitude of the Income Tax Department towards the defaulters, the ministry said. The ministry said that during investigations it was found that the real estate company had deducted TDS but had not deposited in the government account despite there being a statutory obligation by the Income Tax Act. "This also led to harassment of many innocent persons whose TDS had been deducted but the TDS returns had not been filed by the real estate company," the release said. Giving details, the ministry said the investigations had found that during financial years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015- 16, amounts of Rs 45,68,990, Rs 35,45,290 and Rs 33,36,970, respectively, were deducted by the company. "The assessee company was found to be defaulting on filing of TDS return statements," the ministry said. Later, show-cause notices were served upon the director of the company to explain why sanction for prosecution should not be granted for not complying with the provisions of the law in respect of non-deposition of the Income Tax deducted at source. However, during the proceedings, the assessee asked for repeated adjournments, instead of giving reasonable explanations for the defaults during the proceedings, it said. "Hence, it was concluded that there is no justifiable reason for the delay in depositing the TDS. "This clearly showed the non-serious behaviour of the assessee towards the provisions of deduction and depositions of tax at source," the ministry said. TDS Wing in the revenue department sanctioned the filing of criminal complaint against the company as well as the director. The release further said non-bailable warrant was issued against the director in December 2017 for non-compliance with the case proceedings. The warrants returned to the court unexecuted with the report that accused is avoiding execution of the warrants. "Hence, on January 19, 2018 accused was taken into custody and was remanded to judicial custody. The accused has been sent to Tihar Jail for the same," the release said, without disclosing the name of the company or the director. Principle Chief Commissioner of Income Tax-Delhi, S S Rathore said that the tax department is "very serious" about timely depositing of the TDS deducted by the employers.