CBDT gives I-T commissioners 3-month deadline to clear pending cases

Considering the Rs 60,000 crore shortfall in direct tax collection in the last fiscal, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has prepared a central action plan for its officers to execute during the first quarter of FY19-20. The department wants all Income Tax commissioners to ensure that each assessing officer disposes off at least 25 domestic cases or 20 international cases during the three-month period.

Most of the cases are post the demonetisation era. The CBDT is not leaving any stone unturned to ascertain it achieves its set target this year.

Moneycontrol has a copy of central action plan, which was sent to I-T commissioners on April 12.

All assessing officers have been asked to complete filing of the cases until June 30. The same deadline has been set for those cases that were set aside for assessment or reopened under section 147 of the I-T Act. The provision empowers assessing officer to assess or reassess tax chargeable on income if he is of the opinion that any income has escaped assessment.

The deadline for filing cases against those companies that were struck off under the companies law has also been set as June 30. In 2017, the government ‘struck off’ several defunct companies introducing an alternative to the usual method of winding up companies.
 In a letter outlining the target set for each Commissioner of Income Tax (CIT), the CBDT said that every CIT has to file 10 prosecution cases for default in the filing of return of income, which has already been identified by the systems directorate or identified manually.

Meanwhile, senior lawyer Arti Sathe told Moneycontrol, “The central action plan is an interesting mix of the things expected from the I-T department. Some points in the action plan are for streamlining the administrative processes, while the pointers of starting prosecution proceedings in a time-bound manner could well unleash a ‘tax terrorism’ of sorts and increase the prosecution proceedings for minor violations.”

Further, the CBDT has set a target to auction 20 percent of properties that have been attached until March 31, 2019. The income tax department has made it clear to all concerned that recovery of outstanding tax will be enhanced. Along with that, penalties will be levied and legal cases will be initiated without delay where income tax settlement commission has already passed an order.