Tds on transporters

Are you talking for dates 01/12/15 (9 vehicles) and 15/01/16 (11 vehicles)? If yes, you need to deduct TDS for FY 2015-16 because during 2015-16 he has 10 or more vehicles.

Thank you sir,

But in the provision it is given " No deduction shall be made from any sum credited or paid or likely to be credited or paid during the previous year to the account of a contractor during the course of plying, hiring and leasing goods carriages, where such contractor owns ten or less goods carriage at any time during the previous year and furnishes a declaration to that effect along with his Permanent Account Number, to the person paying or crediting such sum.”

I understood it as having less than 10 vehicles at any point means upto 15/1/16 there are only 9 vehicles so there TDS provision is not attracted

The word "during the previous year" means as per Income tax "any year begins with 1st April and ends with 31st March". And thus during 2015-16 (From 01/04/15 to 31/03/16) the transportor owns more than 10 vehicles. You cannot count the period between 01/04/15 to 15/01/16 instead count the period between 01/04/15 to 31/03/16.