775/CBDT. - Income Tax - 775/CBDT

Instruction No: 775/CBDT Date of Issue: 28/10/1974 With a view to verifying the correctness of the figures shown in the Half Yearly statement for the period ending 30th September, 1972 regarding expeditious issue of refund vouchers, a test check of 10 per cent. of the refunds issued during the period covered, was ordered to e carried out by Member (IT) by his D.O. of even number dated 24th September, 1973 to ascertain the date of issue and receipt of advice notes by the Reserve Bank/State Bank/Treasuries vis-a-vis date of service of refund vouchers. 2. Out of 1,70,378 cases in which the refund vouchers were issued, test check was carried out in 23,678 cases. Out of the cases in which the test check was carried out, only in 15, 365 cases the advice notes have been issued simultaneously and in the balance 8,313 cases there has been a time lag between the delivery of the refund voucher and the advice note as under:- (a) Time-lage of less than 3 days - 4,935 (b) Time-lag between 3 to 7 days - 2,532 (c) Time -lag between 7 to 15 days - 623 (d) Time lag over 15 days -223 3. The position obtaining above is far from satisfactory. Delay in the service of advice note to the bank leads to harrassment of tax payers and it often results in complaints, putting the department in a very embarassing position. 4. It has been stated by various Commissioners of Income-tax that the practice obtaining in some of their charges is to send advice notes in batches to the Bank so as to have sufficient workload for the notice server. In some of the charges advice notes are sent by post where some delay has occurred. Reasons given for the time lag include carelessness on the part of the office staff as well. While postal delays cannot be avoided, it would be advisable to increase the frequency of the notice server going to the bank alongwith the advice notes so as to reduce the time lag to the minimum Carelessness on the part of the office staff in this respect should be viewed very seriously and appropriate action taken whenever such case comes to the notice of the ITO, Inspecting Assistant Commissioner and the Commissioner of Income-tax, either on the basis of the complaint received or during the course of their normal inspections. Every effort should be made to see that the advice notes are simultaneously issued to bank on the same day on which the refund voucher is despatched. 4. The Board desire that the time lag between the delivery of the refund voucher and the advice note should not normaly exceed 3 days in any case unless there are sufficient compelling reasons justifying the delay. 5. Necessary instructions may kindly be issued to officers working in each charge for their guidance and strict compliance.