NEW DELHI: As hundreds of crores of rupees collected as TDS from the road accident claim amount awarded to victims’ families remained unclaimed, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to examine how the amount can be refunded as many such families may not come in the tax bracket and also lack awareness about the issue.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh, which has passed a series of orders to streamline the process to ensure that compensation is given to families of road accident victims, set a two-month deadline for insurance companies to develop a mobile app which could be used as a single platform for applying and processing of road accident insurance claims in an expeditious manner.
It was brought to the court’s notice by advocates N Vijayaraghavan and Vipin Nair, who are assisting the court as amicus curiae, that the unclaimed TDS was around Rs 600 crore way back in 2017 and the amount could have increased many fold by now. They pleaded the court to examine this aspect also as10-20% of the amount is deducted as TDS.
“In all cases where Tax Deductions at Source (TDS) was applied as per Section 194-A of Income Tax Act,1961, insurance companies/transport corporations/others shall file the Statutory Form 16-A immediately upon filing the returns of the TDS to the Income Tax Department. The MACTs, shall thereafter, can handover them to claimants/counsel, on proper acknowledgment, to seek a refund wherever applicable,” they submitted.
Agreeing with the submission, the bench said that people must be told about the refund. “Many may not come in the tax net and may not be filing Income Tax Return (ITR). Large number of people do not know how to claim it because of their social economic background,” the bench said and asked additional solicitor generalJayant K Sud to examine it and bring it to the Centre’s notice while expressing hope that the issue may get addressed in the budget.
The bench also expressed its displeasure over the General Insurance Council (GIC), a nodal agency for insurance companies, for not complying with its order to develop a mobile app. The court, however, agreed to grant it two months more time after senior advocate Atul Nanda, appearing for the council, assured the task would be done within eight weeks as 90% of the work has already been done.
The apex court had earlier ordered that electronic means be adopted in the entire procedure for grant of compensation, right from police filing reports within 48 hours through email or a dedicated website and insurance companies depositing money electronically through bank transfers.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh, which has passed a series of orders to streamline the process to ensure that compensation is given to families of road accident victims, set a two-month deadline for insurance companies to develop a mobile app which could be used as a single platform for applying and processing of road accident insurance claims in an expeditious manner.
It was brought to the court’s notice by advocates N Vijayaraghavan and Vipin Nair, who are assisting the court as amicus curiae, that the unclaimed TDS was around Rs 600 crore way back in 2017 and the amount could have increased many fold by now. They pleaded the court to examine this aspect also as10-20% of the amount is deducted as TDS.
“In all cases where Tax Deductions at Source (TDS) was applied as per Section 194-A of Income Tax Act,1961, insurance companies/transport corporations/others shall file the Statutory Form 16-A immediately upon filing the returns of the TDS to the Income Tax Department. The MACTs, shall thereafter, can handover them to claimants/counsel, on proper acknowledgment, to seek a refund wherever applicable,” they submitted.
Agreeing with the submission, the bench said that people must be told about the refund. “Many may not come in the tax net and may not be filing Income Tax Return (ITR). Large number of people do not know how to claim it because of their social economic background,” the bench said and asked additional solicitor generalJayant K Sud to examine it and bring it to the Centre’s notice while expressing hope that the issue may get addressed in the budget.
The bench also expressed its displeasure over the General Insurance Council (GIC), a nodal agency for insurance companies, for not complying with its order to develop a mobile app. The court, however, agreed to grant it two months more time after senior advocate Atul Nanda, appearing for the council, assured the task would be done within eight weeks as 90% of the work has already been done.
The apex court had earlier ordered that electronic means be adopted in the entire procedure for grant of compensation, right from police filing reports within 48 hours through email or a dedicated website and insurance companies depositing money electronically through bank transfers.
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