Section 194

Dividends.—

194. The principal officer of an Indian company or a company which has made the prescribed arrangements for the declaration and payment of dividends (including dividends on preference shares) within India, shall, before making any payment in cash or before issuing any cheque or warrant in respect of any dividend or before making any distribution or payment to a shareholder, or any dividend within the meaning of sub-clause (a) or sub-clause (b) or sub-clause (c) or sub-clause (d) or sub-clause (e) of clause (22) of section 2, deduct from the amount of such dividend, income-tax ¹³[... ... ... ] at the rates in force :

Provided that where in the case of any shareholder, not being a company, the Income-tax Officer gives a certificate in writing in the prescribed manner that to the best of his belief the total income ^l[. ...] of the shareholder will be less than the minimum liable to income-tax, the person responsible for paying any dividend to the shareholder shall so long as the certificate is in force pay the dividend without any deduction.

[As amended by Finance Act, 1970]