Interest under section 201(1A) compensates for tax that reached the Government late — 1% a month where you failed to deduct, 1.5% a month where you deducted and paid late. The section 234E fee of Rs. 200 a day is for filing the quarterly statement late, is capped at the TDS of that quarter, and there is no waiver machinery for it.
Section 201(1A) has two limbs and they are charged at different rates. Simple interest at one per cent for every month or part of a month runs from the date on which the tax was deductible to the date on which it is actually deducted. Simple interest at one and one-half per cent for every month or part of a month runs from the date of deduction to the date on which the tax is actually paid. So the deductor who never deducted pays the lower rate and the deductor who deducted and sat on the money pays the higher one. Section 206C(7) applies the same 1% and 1.5% to failures to collect and to pay TCS.
One relief is built in. Where the payee is a resident who has furnished a return, taken the sum into account and paid the tax, the proviso to section 201(1A) provides that interest under the first limb is payable only up to the date of furnishing of the return of income by that resident. That caps the period; it does not remove the interest. The statute is framed in mandatory terms — the deductor "shall be liable to pay" — and I found no provision permitting waiver of section 201(1A) interest.
Section 234E is a different animal. It charges a fee of Rs. 200 for every day during which the failure to deliver the quarterly TDS or TCS statement continues, and the fee cannot exceed the amount of tax deducted or collected for that quarter. The department's guidance illustrates the cap: where TDS for a quarter is Rs. 8,400 and 155 days of delay would compute to Rs. 31,000, only Rs. 8,400 is charged. The fee must be paid before the statement can be filed. Statement due dates for FY 2025-26 were 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May for TDS, and 15 July, 15 October, 15 January and 15 May for TCS.
The Bombay High Court in Rashmikant Kundalia v. UOI upheld section 234E, characterising it as compensatory rather than punitive — a fee for the privilege of regularising a late filing, in return for the extra departmental work the delay creates. The Court noted that there is no statutory appeal against the levy and no power in the officer to condone the delay, and that the remedy in a hard case is writ jurisdiction under Articles 226 and 227. That is the practical answer on waiver: there isn't one.
There is a timing defence for old quarters. The Karnataka High Court in Fatheraj Singhvi v. UOI held that the machinery to compute and demand the section 234E fee while processing a statement was inserted into section 200A only with effect from 1 June 2015 and operates prospectively, so intimations levying the fee for periods before that date cannot stand. Section 234E existed earlier, but the power to raise the demand in a section 200A intimation did not.
Penalty is separate again. Section 271H, for failing to deliver a statement or furnishing incorrect information, is not less than Rs. 10,000 and may extend to Rs. 1,00,000, and is in addition to the section 234E fee. It is not levied where the tax deducted or collected has been paid with the fee and interest and the statement is delivered within one month of the due date — a window reduced to one month with effect from AY 2025-26. Section 273B gives relief on proof of reasonable cause, and section 273A(4) allows the Commissioner to reduce or waive penalty.
Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, section 398 carries the same 1% and 1.5% interest limbs for both deduction and collection failures.
Interest and fee are computed automatically by CPC-TDS and are the components clients most often ignore while contesting the tax. They compound: the section 234E fee accrues daily until the statement is actually filed, so arguing about the tax while leaving the statement unfiled makes the bill grow. And because the fee cannot be appealed in the ordinary way, the only real control is speed.
You took a cash loan and now face penalty equal to the whole amount. Is there any relief?
I have paid the short-deducted tax and the interest to close the matter — can the department still levy penalty under section 271C?
We pay interconnect and port charges to another telecom operator — is that fees for technical services on which we must deduct tax under section 194J?
The TDS officer says I under-deducted under s.192. If my estimate was made honestly, does that answer the demand, the interest and the penalty?
My employees exercised stock options but the shares are locked in and non-transferable. Was I supposed to deduct tax on the market value less what they paid?
As an employer, must I collect bills and tickets from employees before treating leave travel concession or conveyance allowance as exempt while deducting tax under section 192?
You pay a foreign supplier for software. Is that royalty, and must you deduct TDS?
I did not deduct TDS, but the person I paid has already paid tax on it. Can the department still recover it from me?
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