Interest @ 1% per month is payable on the amount of income tax paid after the end of the financial year.
Text of Section 234 B of IT Act, 1961
Subject to the other provisions of this section, where, in any financial year, an assessee who is liable to pay advance tax under section 208 has failed to pay it or, where the amount paid by such assessee under the provisions of section 210 is less than ninety percent of the assessed amount, the assessee shall be liable to pay simple interest at the rate of one per cent for every month or part of a month comprised in the period from the 1st day of April next following such financial year to the date of determination of total income under sub-section (1) of section 143 and where a regular assessment is made, to the date of such regular assessment, on an amount equal to the assessed tax or, as the case may be, on the amount by which the advance tax paid as aforesaid falls short of the assessed tax.
Explanation 1.—In this section, “assessed tax” means the tax on the total income determined under sub-section (1) of section 143 and where a regular assessment is made, the tax on the total income determined under such regular assessment as reduced by the amount of,—
(i) any tax deducted or collected at source in accordance with the provisions of Chapter XVII on any income which is subject to such deduction or collection and which is taken into account in computing such total income;
(ii) any relief of tax allowed under section 90 on account of tax paid in a country outside India;
(iii) any relief of tax allowed under section 90A on account of tax paid in a specified territory outside India referred to in that section;
(iv) any deduction, from the Indian Income-tax payable, allowed under section 91, on account of tax paid in a country outside India; and
(v) any tax credit allowed to be set off in accordance with the provisions of section 115JAA.
Explanation 2.—where in relation to an assessment year, an assess-ment is made for the first time under section 147 or section 153A, the assessment so made shall be regarded as a regular assessment for the purposes of this section.
Explanation 3.—In Explanation 1 and in sub-section (3), “tax on the total income determined under sub-section (1) of section 143″ shall not include the additional Income-tax, if any, payable under section 143.”
