Taxmen to be ranked for timely reports

Modi said this step will deter corruption and also motivate officers to pass correct orders

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing that performance appraisal system for Income Tax department officials will be changed, the CBDT has said the new format will give "substantial weight" and higher marks to deadline-bound quality assessment work done by the taxmen.

Modi, while addressing an economic conclave last week, had said this step will deter corruption and also motivate officers to pass correct orders.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex-policy making body of the department, has prepared an eight-point action plan so that the most important work of assessment of I-T cases could be given "adequate attention", based on which the taxman will be assessed for his or her annual appraisal.

"There will be new sections in the annual performance appraisal peport (APAR) for the reviewing officer to record all these activities of their junior as desired by the CBDT and on the instructions of the Prime Minister. Substantial weight to certain parameters means that the identified areas in assessment work will get higher ratings for an official. These APARs will be notified soon," a senior I-T official said.

The board has also issued point-by-point directions in this regard to the field offices of the department sometime back.

"In order to ensure greater accountability of assessing officers in assessment work, the board is in process of revising the format of the annual performance appraisal report (APAR) in which substantial weight is proposed to be given to the handling of various aspects of assessment work by an assessing officer. These are required to be carefully and objectively filled by the supervisory authorities," the action plan, accessed by PTI, said.

The new instructions are to be followed for the financial year 2015-16 and it stipulates that all timelines framed by the CBDT while making assessment proceedings should be diligently followed by assessing officers which will form the basis of their appraisal review.

"All statutory notices and questionnaires should be served on the assessee in a timely manner in accordance with the prescribed procedures," the directions said.

While dealing with scrutiny cases, the directions said, the proceedings should be conducted in a "non-adversarial manner" which will also be brought on record on the APAR of an official.

The CBDT has asked the supervisory officials to monitor the implementation of these directions by their juniors, like that of properly recording an assesses' immovable and movable assets like bank accounts, deposits and credit cards when they are being called for scrutiny.

The new APARs will also see if timelines were followed by tax sleuths in conducting and issuing final assessment orders after launching a search or a survey operation.

"Supervisory authorities may be made to expedite the completion of assessments in these (search) cases," the directions said.

Modi had said these changes, including online assessment of scrutiny cases and changes in performance appraisal, when fully implemented, have "transformative potential".