Tax Officials Get More Teeth To Plug Revenue Gap

The revenue department will no longer be lenient as regards scrutiny of tax returns. It has, instead, increased the powers of officers for search and survey operations.

Under the revised provisions of the Income-Tax Act, an officer in a search operation will have the power to ask for passwords of accounts books stored in computers. The amendment in sub-section (1) of Section 132 of the Act empowers the officer to ask for details of the records maintained in the electronic form.

Tax analysts said with an increasing number of companies keeping their records in the encrypted form, such powers had become necessary. The issue had gained prominence during the stock scam of 1992 when the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) officials found it difficult to examine the records of brokers because they did not have the latter