Section 212

Section 212 — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 212, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Central Provinces Manganese Ore Co. Ltd. v. CIT — interest under s.215 can be disputed in appeal only on the ground of total non-liability, and waiver must first be asked of the Assessing Officer Supreme CourtHelps departmentValidity unconfirmed
  The assessment order charges interest under s.215 (or s.217, or s.139(8)). Can I appeal against the interest, and if not, how do I get it reduced?
  The Supreme Court held that because the levy of interest is a part of the process of assessment, an assessee may dispute it in appeal, but only if he limits himself to the ground that he is not liable to the levy at all; a complaint about the quantum, or about the refusal of relief on the merits, is not within the appeal. The route for reduction is the statutory waiver power — s.215(4), and the corresponding provision for s.139(8) interest — and the Court held that where the assessee has made no application to the Income-tax Officer for reduction or waiver, there has been no improper denial of relief, so no revision petition to the Commissioner can be maintained in that regard either.
• Statutory position — ss.215, 216 and 217: the advance tax interest scheme that ran before s.234B and s.234C, and the s.215(4) waiver power CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both waysValidity unconfirmed
  I am defending an old assessment year, or a reassessment for one, and the order charges interest under s.215 or s.217 rather than s.234B. What do those sections actually require, and can the interest be waived?
  Sections 215, 216 and 217 are the interest provisions that preceded s.234B and s.234C, and they are all keyed to estimates under s.209A or s.212 — both of which were omitted by the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987 with effect from 1 April 1988, while s.234C(2) provides that s.234C applies to assessments for the assessment year commencing on 1 April 1989 and subsequent years. Section 215(1) charges simple interest at fifteen per cent per annum where advance tax paid on the assessee's own estimate is less than seventy-five per cent of the assessed tax (eighty-three and one-third per cent for a company), from 1 April following the financial year to the date of the regular assessment; s.216 charges interest at the same rate where the assessee under-estimated and thereby reduced either of the first two instalments, or wrongly deferred payment under s.213; and s.217 charges it where no statement or estimate was sent at all. Section 215(4) — applied to s.217 by s.217(2) — gives the Assessing Officer power to 'reduce or waive the interest payable by the assessee under this section' in such cases and circumstances as may be prescribed.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.