Credit for tax paid- Procedure. - Income Tax - 1374/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 1374/CBDT Dated: January 9, 1981 With reference to Board's Instruction No.1225 dated the 13th December,1978 for giving credit where original foils of the challans are missing. 2. The annex to the above instruction contains procedure for giving credit to the assessee accordingly as the payment of tax is made before the introduction of the scheme of acceptance of direct taxes by public sector banks in addition to the RBI and SBI or after that scheme. 3. Some of the CsIT pointed out to the Board certain types of cases which cannot be covered under the said procedure. Certain other difficulties were also pointed out in following the existing procedure. 4. The matter has been examined in consultation with the C AG of India and the following relaxation modifications in the existing procedure have been made to facilitate giving credit for the tax paid by the assessees: i) In step I (i)(a) of the annex to Boards Instruction No.1225 referred to in para 1 above a certified true copy is required to be made from the assessee's foil of the challan which has to be countersigned by the IAC if the payment involved exceeds Rs.1,000 irrespective of when the payment was made. The limit of the counter signatures of IAC has been raised to Rs.10,000. Henceforth if the payment does not exceed Rs.10000, ITO will himself countersign the certified copy of the challan. ii) In respect of the payments made before the coming into force of the new scheme of tax payments the present procedure requires vide step II-A of the annex to boards Instruction No.1225 that the payment should be verified from the DCR which would be taken as conclusive proof if there is a record therein of reconciliation of totals of DCR and the treasury figures. It further provides that in the absence of reconciliation a reference should be made to the treasury officer for certifying the payment. It has been decided that where these requirements are not forthcoming credit should be given to the taxpayer in the following manner:- (a) A certified true copy should be obtained from the tax-payer and countersigned in the manner described in step I91)(a) as modified in para 1 above. If the assessee's copy is not forthcoming a certified copy of the provisional receipt given in acceptance of the cheque tendered at the cheque receipt counters of the Department should be obtained and got signed counter. b) There should be some evidence in the Departmental records to prove the receipt of tax such as entry in the DCR even though the total is not reconciled with the entry in the cheque receipt register and the cheque having been sent for encashment is not received back uncollected etc. c) In such cases the powers of the various authorities for giving credit would be regulated in the following manner:- i) ITO - Rs.500 per challan subject to a maximum of Rs.2500 per assessee. ii)IAC - Upto Rs.2000 per challan subject to a maximum of 10000/assessee. iii)CIT -Rs.10,000 per challan subject to a maximum of Rs.50000/assessee. iv)Zonal commitee consisting of ---- Upto Rs.50000 per challan subject to 3 CsIT on the pattern of the a maximum of Rs.2.5 lakhs per WRITE OFF committee. assessee. v) CBDT on the recommendations ---- Beyond Rs.50,000 per challan and/or of the Zonal committee Rs.2.5 lakhs per assessee d) In such cases instead of the noting prescribed on the order sheet in step II (a)(ii) of the annex the following noting should be made:- Certified true copy of the receipted foil of challan acknowledging receipt of cheque dated _______ for Rs._____ is placed/ available on file. The payment is supported by _________ ITO. e) Other requirements like entry in the Tax payment verification Register etc will remain unchanged. 5. There would still be some cases which cannot be covered under the procedure relaxed vide para 4(ii) above where payments were made before the new scheme of tax payments. It has been decided that in such cases you may kindly furnish to the Board the following details;- 1. Name of the assessee 2. Amount of each payment challan wise. 3. Date of payment. 4. Brief description of the nature of evidence with the assessee and with the Department. 6. These statements may please be sent to the Board latest by 28th February 1981 and should be complete repeat complete record of cases where problem of missing challans still remains unsolved. 7. As the Tax Arrears clearance fortnight is being observed from 16th January to 31st January 1981 it is requested that the relaxation given through this instruction may be taken advantage of and credit should be given to tax payers in all cases covered by the instructions.