INSTRUCTION NO. 3/2013, DATED 5-7-2013
Hon’ble Delhi High Court vide Judgment in case of Court On its Own Motion v. UOI and Ors. in W.P. (C) 2659/2012 dated 14.03.2013 has issued several Mandamuses for necessary action by income-tax Department one of which is regarding maintenance of “Rectification Register” in which details like receipt of applications under section 154 of the IT Act, their processing and disposal are to be maintained. (Reference: Para 16 to 18 of the order).
2. In view of the said order it has been decided by the Board that henceforth all applications received under section 154 of the I.T. Act by the concerned jurisdictional authorities shall be dealt with in the following manner-
A. Receipt of applications under section 154 of the Income-tax Act, 1961:
A.1. Offices where Aayakar Seva Kendra is Centeralized Dak receipt Center
(i) All offices where Aayakar Seva Kendra (‘ASK’) is functional, it would be ensured that that all applications received under section 154 are duly entered into the system by the ASK and a system generated ASK acknowledgement number shall be given to the taxpayer.
(ii) The acknowledgement number of application received u/s 154 provided to the taxpayer at ASK receipt counter shall be transmitted online to the Assessing Officer while paper application shall be physically forwarded to the Assessing Officer.
(iii) At places where Aayakar Seva Kendra is non-functional but where ASK-Sofware is used for purposes of receipt of Dak, the procedure outlined for Aavakar Seva Kendras mentioned above would be adopted in respect of applications u/s 154 received by the concerned authority.
A.2. Offices where Dak is received by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer
Offices where neither Aayakar Seva Keodra is functional nor ASK Software is used for receipt of dak, the applications u/s 154 should be received, diarized and acknowledgment number should be given to the assessee by the receiving jurisdictional Assessing Officer immediately at the time of filing the application.
B. Maintenance of “Register of Rectifications under section 154” online
B.1. To facilitate action u/s 154 in a time bound and transparent manner, all Assessing Officers should enter rectification applications in the “Valine Rectification Register” which has been made available in ITD Applications. The procedure to maintain this register online has already been intimated to the field formations vide AST Instruction No. 112 dated 29.11.2012 issued by the Directorate of Income-tax (Systems).
B.2. Rectification applications have to be compulsorily uploaded in “Online Rectification Register” by the Assessing Officer on the day application is received by him either through Aayakar Seva Kendra/ASK Software or in his own office. The acknowledgement number provided to the taxpayer at the time of receiving application u/s 154 must invariably be entered in “Online Rectification Register” in appropriate column.
C. Disposal of applications under section 154 of the Income-tax Act, 1961:
C.1. As per provisions of Section 154 of the I.T, Act, 196l, each application under that Section has to be disposed of by passing appropriate order within 6 months from the end of the month in which application is received. However, under Citizens Charter of 2010, the service delivery standard in respect of deciding rectification application has been fixed as 2 months. The concerned authorities should therefore, abide by this standard and ensure that rectification applications are decided as far as possible within a period of two months from the end of the month in which application is received.
C.2. Every Rectification application has to be processed through ITD applications only.
C.3. In cases where applications were received through Aayakar Seva Kendra/ASK Software, Assessing Officer should also flag/mark the disposal of rectification application in ASK Software so that its disposed status could be tracked down.
C.4. The order under section 154 of income-tax Act muse fulfill all the legal requirements, should be a speaking order and has to be invariably communicated co the taxpayer immediately after its disposal.
3. In respect of e-filed returns, the rectification applications are also filed online. CPC would be required to immediately identify whether action can be taken at its own end or it has to be transferred to the Assessing Officer for necessary action. If CPC is required to take action, it would do so within the time-frame prescribed. On the other hand, if the Assessing Officer is required to dispose it off, he would enter the same in the online rectification register, process it on AST and shall again make necessary entries therein once the same is disposed off. The prescribed time limit would strictly be adhered to in this case also.
4. All CCsIT/DGsIT are requested to ensure that the above procedure is strictly followed in their charge with immediate effect and the maintenance and updating of online rectification register is monitored by the concerned supervisory officers in their respective charges.
Rohit Garg
Deputy Secretary to Government of India
IT (A.II)CBDT
F. No. 25/76/2013/ITA.II
Though timelimits under the Citizen Charter is to be followed, but where the case involves legal issues and is debtatable then, it should be out of purview of the Citizen Charter.
Secondly, most of the taxpayers are filing rectifiction application for the reason that they had done clerical mistakes in filing their original return. In such cases, assessee has to file revised return instead of filing rectification application, such type of cases should also be kept out of purview of time limits under the Citizens’ Charter, since, these too are also involve legal issues and is debatable.
this type of information is very important to all the tax practitioners, specially those persons not going through to the tax journals regularly, very thanks for this type of mails.
“C.4. The order ‘under section 154 of Income-tax Act MUST FULFILL ALL THE LEGAL REQUIREMENTS, SHOULD BE A SPEAKING ORDER and has TO BE INVARIABLY COMMUNICATED to the taxpayer immediately after its disposal.” (Capital Supplied)
The issuance of instructions by the Ministry, this time for a change with more clarity of purpose in mind, is a timely step and welcome. Can be no denying that the gullible taxpayers have been suffering helplessly but patiently the innumerable woes in the face of inter alia the demonstrably chaotic TDS regime for too long to be justified; but since given fresh hopes.
A couple of aspects worth a double underlining:
1. The “contents” of the Circular, addressed to the two top heads, with CCs to certain others,would require to be , in turn, necessarily passed on and reached to the ATTENTION of each one of the field authorities’ desk, addressed to personal name. All the more imperative, to be made clear that any failure to strictly adhere to and comply with any of the instructions, not only in letter but also spirit, would invite personal action on the ‘presumptive’ ground of not having acted “in the performance of his duties”, as warranted by the law (same way as in the case of any other “public servant”); and that all the attendant consequences to follow.
2, The field authorities are, no doubt, even in the normal course, expected to be fully aware, and also MADE A CONSCIOUS NOTE OF / bear in mind the purport and true import of the words / expressions highlighted in the above extracted portion of the Circular for their purposes / in their own interest. Even so, it might be worthwhile for the Ministry / CBDT to follow up by making those more than clear and sufficiently impressed. Especially, having noted that similarly worded circulars / directives issued in recent times have, by and large, not served the intended objects, by making an impact and change in the field reality. All the more important for the Ministry / CBDT is to keep closely monitoring the outcome, with a sincerity of purpose in the profound sense.
Now, over to the Experts, the self-professed ‘social activists’ among them in particular; in the fervent expectation of useful contribution, aimed at accomplishing the ultimate objective of “public interest” (-in the same sense as made out by the Delhi High Court in Court on Its Own Motion vs. UOI 352 ITR 273).