Bollywood director Luv Ranjan faces criminal case for delaying TDS deposits

Mumbai Bollywood director Luv Ranjan is facing criminal proceedings under the income tax laws for failing to deposit the TDS (tax deducted at source) of over ₹35 lakhs, collected during financial year 2016-17 from his clients in the stipulated period

Mumbai Bollywood director Luv Ranjan is facing criminal proceedings under the income tax laws for failing to deposit the TDS (tax deducted at source) of over ₹35 lakhs, collected during financial year 2016-17 from his clients in the stipulated period.

Bollywood director Luv Ranjan faces criminal case for delaying TDS deposits

The director has been summoned by the special court to face the criminal proceedings in the case filed by the Income Tax (I-T) department. Through special prosecutor Amit Munde, the complaint stated that during the financial year 2016-17 relevant to assessment year 2017-18, an amount of ₹35,02,316 was deducted by Ranjan from his clients, but was not deposited in the Government Treasury within the prescribed time limit.

It is alleged that the details of TDS deducted and dates of deposits have been extracted by the officer from the system and it reflected that during the entire year the assessee kept deducting TDS on various dates and depositing the same beyond due dates.

“The delays range from 2 to 10 months,” the complaint filed by the I-T department read.

The I-T department claimed that when the department sought explanation from Ranjan, the notice returned unserved. Further, when he was asked to explain the delay, the complaint added that the accused did not respond properly.

The agency claimed that “the explanation given by the accused for his failure to pay the said tax deducted at source within the prescribed time, does not constitute a reasonable excuse or cause” for the said default.

The department claims that the Bollywood director committed a default under section 200 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Rule 30 of the Income Tax Rules, 1962, by failing without reasonable cause to pay the tax so deducted from payments made to various parties. “The said default amounts to an offence punishable under section 276B read with section 278B of the Income Tax Act, 1961,” the department claimed.