Para 8 - Powers and Duties - Income Tax Ombudsman Guidelines 2010

CHAPTER III 8. Powers and Duties I. The Ombudsman shall have the powers to - (a) receive complaints from taxpayers on any matters specified in clause 9; (b) consider such complaints and facilitate their satisfaction or settlement by agreement, through conciliation and mediation between the Income-Tax Department and the aggrieved parties or by passing an 'award' in accordance with the Guidelines; (c) require the Income-Tax Authority complained against or any other related Income-Tax Authority to provide any information or furnish certified copies of any document relating to the subject-matter of the complaint which is or is alleged to be in its possession; provided that in the event of failure of such authority to comply with the requisition without any sufficient cause, the Ombudsman may, if he deems fit, draw the inference that the information, if provided or copies if furnished, would be unfavourable to the concerned Income-Tax Authority; (d) suggest remedial measures for redressal of grievances; and (e) report his findings to the Secretary, Department of Revenue, GOI and the Chairman CBDT for appropriate action against erring officials; II. The Ombudsman shall have the following duties: (a) to exercise general powers of superintendence and control over his office and be responsible for the conduct of business in his office; (b) to maintain confidentiality of any information or document coming into his knowledge or possession in the course of discharging his duties and not disclose such information or document to any person except with the consent of the person furnishing such information or document; provided that nothing in this clause shall prevent the Ombudsman from disclosing information or documents furnished by a party in a complaint to the other party or parties, to the extent considered by him to be reasonably required to comply with the principles of natural justice and fair play in the proceedings; (c) to protect individual taxpayer's rights and reduce taxpayers' burden; (d) to identify issues that increase the compliance burden or create problems for taxpayers, and to bring those issues to the attention of the CBDT and the Ministry of Finance; (e) to send a monthly report to the Chairman CBDT and Secretary, Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance recommending appropriate action. The report shall specially highlight cases where action needs to be taken against erring Income-Tax authorities for their failure to redress the grievance. The report will be accompanied with primary evidence needed to initiate action against the delinquent persons; (f) to furnish a report every year containing a general review of activities of the office of the Ombudsman during the preceding financial year to the Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance and the Chairman, CBDT along with such other information as may be considered necessary by him. In the annual report, the Ombudsman, on the basis of grievances handled by him, will review the quality of the working of the Income-tax Department and make recommendations to improve the tax administration; and (g) to compile a list of 'awards' passed by it between April and March of each financial year in respect of every Income-Tax Authority Complained Against, by name, and report it to the controlling Chief Commissioners of the officers concerned and the Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes before the end of April so that this information can be reflected in the Annual Confidential Reports of the officers concerned.