Tax dept asks officers to conclude scrutiny cases quickly

To ensure fast disposal of limited scrutiny cases of tax returns, the revenue department has asked its assessing officers to be specific in reasons for picking up the case and complete the enquiry in limited number of hearings.
The tax department has also advised its officers to inform the assessee quickly about the reasons for limited scrutiny, the Finance Ministry said in a release.
Moreover, cases selected for limited scrutiny can be converted to complete scrutiny only with the approval of the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax or Commissioner of Income tax if the potential income escaping assessment exceeds a certain monetary limit.

"The assessing officers have been advised to inform the assessee forthwith of the reasons for limited scrutiny, confine enquiries on the specific points for which the case has been selected and conclude the proceedings expeditiously in a limited number of hearings," the release said.
It said that the directions are comprehensive and cover cases selected through Computer Aided Scrutiny Selection for limited scrutiny for verification of information contained in Annual Information Return (AIR) or received through Central Information Branch, or complete scrutiny.
The steps to streamline scrutiny assessment proceedings and to facilitate electronic communication have been taken for providing fair and transparent tax administration and improved taxpayer services, the release said.

Highlighting initiatives taken by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), it said CBDT has also initiated a pilot project for carrying out an e-mail based scrutiny assessment in select cases of non-corporate charges at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

"Through this pilot, the Department endeavours to completely remove the need for the taxpayer to visit the offices of the Department while moving towards paperless scrutiny assessment proceedings," it said.
(REOPENS DEL 24)
Singh added, under the corporate tax collection head, while some regions in the country have shown growth "much higher" than the asking rates, some other regions have shown a "negative growth or a growth rate much below the asking rate."

"Economic realities in the country being more or less the same in various regions, such vast oscillations are not justified," she wrote asking all I-T regional heads to prepare "effective strategies and administrative measures for achieving a healthy growth rate in net collection of direct taxes" as still five months are to go in the current 2016-17 fiscal.
She has directed that a good action plan should be prepared in this regard by Principal Chief Commissioners of the department and the designated CBDT members in-charge of regions should be updated about the same before November 15.