Trader
2616 Points
Joined August 2009
Chapter 1, Section 2, Clause 28A defines the word INTEREST for the entire Act. If you can draw a nexus between the processing fee being actually for that housing loan and paid to the bank who is disbursing that housing loan to you, then that processing fee falls under the definition of interest for the income tax act. For your income against house property, if they specifically state that processing fee is not included, then you cannot claim it. However, if they have stated that interest is allowed, then interest will be allowed as defined in Section 2 above unless they define it in a different way particularly for the income against HP.
If you want to, you read the section for Income against H thoroughly and see if interest is specifically defined for that section. If not, then the definitions above will remain applicable and will include any fees in connection with that debt that you pay to the bank. However, I do not think you can claim cheque / ecs bouncing charges and other penal charges as penal charges are specifically disallowed in all sections of Income Tax Act. you should have the certificate from bank indicating that you have paid interest including charges on strength of which you claim the expense of interest.