"Meeting the Challenge of tax evasion". - Income Tax - 964/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 964/CBDT Dated : July 2, 1976 At the Commissioners' Conference held in May, 1976 various suggestions were made during the course of discussions on Agenda item No.4 viz "Meeting the Challenge of tax evasion". These were considered by the Board and the following decisions were taken. i) There can be no two opinions that the strong rooms should be properly guarded. Wherever the Commissioners feel it necessary, they should obtain armed guards from the State Police authorities; ii) All important search cases with estimated tax evasion exceeding Rs. 10 lakhs, should be centralised. Instructions have already been issued to the Commissioners of Income-tax (Central) to take over the bigger search cases. The remaining cases should be centralised immediately in the charges of the concerned Commissioners: iii) It was felt that to work up cases with prosecution potential properly and adequately, such cases should be located at the earliest stage in the assessment proceedings and assigned to specially selected officers in Central Circles or Special Circles or to suitable assessing Inspecting Assistant Commissioners. The Chairman observed that a good case of assessment with irrefutable evidence built into the assessment order should automatically take care of the prosecution angle and, further, that wherever there was a reasonable chance of securing conviction, there should be no hesitation in launching prosecution without waiting for the result of appeals. iv) At the Conference, the Chairman had pointed out that of late some clubs had started a system of issuing liquor against cash coupons, no record being maintained of the persons to whom such coupons were issued. The Chairman desires that each Commissioner should evolve methods of ascertaining such expenditure on liquor by individual members of the clubs so that the same could be taken into account while framing their assessments. v) The Chairman also emphasised that cases of leading doctors, lawyers and other professionals who were either not assessed to tax or were being under-assessed, should be pursued vigorously. In this connection attention is invited to Member (Investigation)'s D.O. F.No.415/4/76-IT(Inv), dated the 30th April, 1976 and Board's letter F.No.415/2/76-IT(Inv), dated 26th April, 1976. 2. Immediate steps should please be taken for giving effect to the decisions mentioned in the preceding paragraphs.