An order issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, as F. No. 225/157/2019/ITA.II, dated 27 September 2019. Issued under section 119.
An order of the Central Board of Direct Taxes under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, bearing F. No. 225/157/2019/ITA.II and issued in September 2019. It concerns assessees covered by clause (a) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139, for whom the due date for filing the return of income for assessment year 2019-20 was 30.09.2019. The order extends that due date, extends the date for the reports of audit that go with it, and then deals separately, and differently, with interest under section 234A.
This is an order of the Board. An order is issued under a power the Act itself gives the Board — most often section 119, which lets it direct its own officers and, in the cases the section names, relax a requirement. Read the enabling words before deciding how far it reaches: the power is administrative, and it cannot rewrite the charge.
The Board extends the due date for filing income-tax returns, and for all reports of audit required to be filed by that specified due date, for assessees covered by clause (a) of Explanation 2 to section 139(1) for assessment year 2019-20, from 30 September 2019 to 31 October 2019. The extension goes no further than that. The order states expressly that there shall be no extension of the due date for the purpose of Explanation 1 to section 234A, which charges interest for defaults in furnishing the return, and that the assessee shall remain liable to pay interest as section 234A provides. The filing date therefore moves by a month; the interest clock does not.
It had been represented to the Board that taxpayers were facing difficulties in filing their audit reports and returns. The order records the reasons put forward - limited time available with tax professionals to complete audits, and floods in certain parts of the country, among others. Having considered representations from various stakeholders for extending the due date of 30 September 2019, the Board granted a month, while making it plain that it was not relieving anyone of interest on tax that remained unpaid.
The order binds the income-tax department, which must treat a return filed by 31 October 2019 as filed within the due date. It does not bind the assessee, and it does not bind a court or the Tribunal. It reaches only assessees within clause (a) of Explanation 2 to section 139(1) for assessment year 2019-20.
Assessment year 2019-20. The due date moves from 30 September 2019 to 31 October 2019, for the return and for the audit reports required to be filed by that date. No corresponding extension for Explanation 1 to section 234A.
The interest carve-out is the trap. Self-assessment tax left unpaid on 30 September 2019 attracted interest under section 234A even though the return itself was filed in time. The extension covers the return and the audit reports required by that due date, not every compliance falling due in the period. Assessees outside clause (a) of Explanation 2 to section 139(1) take nothing from this order.
However, there shall be no extension of the due date for purpose of Explanation 1 to section 234A (interest for defaults in furnishing return) of the Act and the assessee shall remain liable for payment of interest
— the Central Board of Direct Taxes, order F. No. 225/157/2019/ITA.II, 27 September 2019. Read it in the department’s own PDF.
| Under the Income-tax Act, 1961 | Now, in the Income-tax Act, 2025 |
|---|---|
| section 119 | section 239 |
| section 139 | section 2, section 263, section 349 |
| section 234A | section 423 |
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What here is the Board’s and what is ours. The document is the Central Board of Direct Taxes’ own. Its number, its date and the words quoted above are reproduced from the Board’s own PDF, which is here. Everything else on this page is ours: the plain-English account of what the document is and what it does, the reading of which provision it turns on, the note on what to watch, and the choice of cases. Where our account and the document part, the document governs.
An order of the Board binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board writes to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to an order or an instruction that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves. This is the most common mistake made with this material, and it is worth making twice: a direction of the Board is not a section of the Act.
What we could not settle. The date line in the scan reads 'New Delhi, the)°] September, 2019' and the day of the month cannot be made out; 27.09.2019 has been taken from the department's own listing. The signature above the first designation line is garbled; the order is signed by Rajarajeswari R., Under Secretary to the Government of India.