Where there was no intention on part of assessee to avoid or intentionally delay payment of taxes as admitted under section 140A

IT: Where there was no intention on part of assessee to avoid or intentionally delay payment of taxes as admitted under section 140A and belated payment was made voluntarily without resort to any coercisve steps, authorities were justified in restricting penalty to 25 per cent
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[2015] 57 taxmann.com 442 (Delhi)
HIGH COURT OF DELHI
Commissioner of Income-tax
v.
Naresh Kumar Jaggi*
SANJIV KHANNA AND V. KAMESWAR RAO, JJ.
IT APPEAL NO. 654 OF 2014†
DECEMBER  22, 2014
Section 221, read with section 140A, of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Collection and recovery of tax - Penalty payable when tax in default (Delayed payment of tax) - Assessment year 2009-10 - Assessee had admitted tax under section 140A, however, had not paid same - Assessee took a stand that he had paid advance tax of some amount and balance amount was paid in the month of April, 2011 before issuance of show cause notice under section 140A(3) - Assessing Officer was of view that assessee had not shown and established a reasonable cause for non-payment of admitted tax and thus, imposed penalty of 100 per cent - However, Commissioner (Appeals) and Tribunal were of opinion that since there was no intention on part of assessee to avoid or intentionally delay payment of taxes and belated payment was made voluntarily without resort to any coercisve steps, penalty was to be restricted to 25 per cent - Whether based on cogent material and finding authorities were justified in restricting penalty to 25 per cent - Held, yes [Para 8][In favour of assessee]