1. Instances of delay in giving credit to the taxpayers for the payment of direct taxes have been brought to the notice of the Board where such payments are made at a place other than the place of assessment of the taxpayer. The delay is generally due to the time taken in the departmental copy of the receipted challan reaching the Income-tax Officer concerned.
2. In order to avoid such delays it is suggested that, as far as possible, payment of direct taxes, other than of tax deducted at source, should be made at the place where the taxpayer is assessed to tax. The departmental copy of the challan will then reach the Income-tax Officer concerned quickly and the Department will be able to give credit to the taxpayer for his tax payment expeditiously.
3. As regards the tax deducted at source the payment should be made at the place of the income-tax office where the person responsible for deduction and payment of tax is required to file the annual/periodical statements of tax deducted at source as prescribed under the Income-tax Rules.
4. As mentioned in paragraph 2 above, payment of direct taxes other than of tax deducted at source should be made at the place where the taxpayer is assessed to tax. The volume of payments on account of direct taxes is very much larger in the metropolitan cities, viz., Delhi, Greater Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Kanpur. In these cities, therefore, offices of the Reserve Bank, all branches of State Bank of India and all branches of 2 to 3 other selected public sector banks which were in existence on 1-4-1976, provide the facilities for acceptance of payments of direct taxes either in the form of cash or by cheques/drafts. A list showing the names of banks and the number of branches which have been authorised for the purpose in these cities is enclosed for information of your members. Likewise, in other important and bigger centres, in addition to branches of the State Bank of India, branches of two other selected public sector banks accept payments of direct taxes and the income-tax offices do guide the assessees in this regard.
5. An important point which the Board would like to stress is that while payment by a local cheque or draft can be made at any of the branches of banks authorised for the purpose, the assessees are advised that if they have an account in any branch of an authorised bank they should tender cheques at the said branch of the authorised bank. This arrangement will enable them to get the receipted copies of challans without any delay and will also save manpower, etc., by eliminating the Clearing House Operations in respect of such cheques. Another advantage of this procedure will be that if any payment made by the taxpayer is misclassified, the mistake can be immediately corrected.
Circular: No. 306 [F. No. 385/7/81-IT(B)], dated 19-6-1981.
ANNEX-STATEMENT SHOWING THE DETAILS OF AUTHORISED PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS AT METROPOLITAN CITIES WHERE THE RESERVE BANK OF INDIA (RBI) IS THE FOCAL POINT BANK
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Focal point bank
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Nominated public sector banks
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No. of all authorized branches on 1-4-1976
|
|
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1
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2
|
3
|
|
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1. RBI New Delhi
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1. State Bank of India
|
108
|
|
|
2. Punjab National Bank
|
78
|
||
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3. Bank of India
|
34
|
||
|
4. Syndicate Bank
|
41
|
||
|
261
|
|||
|
2. RBI Bombay
|
1. State Bank of India
|
67
|
|
|
2. Bank of Baroda
|
60
|
||
|
3. Bank of India
|
67
|
||
|
4. Central Bank of India
|
57
|
||
|
251
|
|||
|
3. RBI Madras
|
1. State Bank of India
|
47
|
|
|
2. Indian Bank
|
64
|
||
|
3. Indian Overseas Bank
|
43
|
||
|
154
|
|||
|
4. RBI Calcutta
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1. State Bank of India
|
105
|
|
|
2. United Bank of India
|
124
|
||
|
3. United Commercial Bank of India
|
49
|
||
|
4. Punjab National Bank
|
28
|
||
|
306
|
|||
|
5. RBI Hyderabad
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1. State Bank of India
|
31
|
|
|
2. Syndicate Bank
|
26
|
||
|
3. State Bank of Hyderabad
|
48
|
||
|
105
|
|||
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6. RBI Bangalore
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1. State Bank of India
|
26
|
|
|
2. Canara Bank
|
61
|
||
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3. Syndicate Bank
|
43
|
||
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4. State Bank of Mysore
|
49
|
||
|
179
|
|||
|
7. RBI Ahmedabad
|
1. State Bank of India
|
54
|
|
|
2. Bank of India
|
29
|
||
|
3. Bank of Baroda
|
37
|
||
|
120
|
|||
|
8. RBI Kanpur
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1. State Bank of India
|
52
|
|
|
2. Bank of India
|
4
|
||
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3. Punjab National Bank
|
17
|
||
|
73
|
|||
CLARIFICATION 2
1. In para 5 of Board’s Circular No. 306, dated 19-6-1981 the assessees were advised that if they had account in any branch of the authorised bank, they should tender cheques at the said branch of the authorised bank. This arrangement was suggested in the interest of taxpayers themselves. Further, they are advised that in case they do not have any account in any branch of the authorised bank at the place where they are being assessed, they might consider opening an account in any branch of the said banks so that the payment of taxes and encashment of refund of taxes, etc., can be routed through that account. The advantage of this procedure would be that they would get expeditious credit for tax payments made in the books of the Income-tax Department and the possibility of any payment or challan being lost in transit would be eliminated.
2. The procedure suggested above should not be construed as an imposition on the taxpayers and it is reiterated that they are free not to use the procedure suggested if they so desire. However, the adoption of the procedure would be in their own interest.
Letter: F.No. 385/37/-81-IT(B), dated 3-10-1981.
