Seizure to books of account and documents which have not been produced. - Income Tax - 1526/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 1526/CBDT Dated: July 9, 1983 Section(s) Referred: 132 Statute: Income - Tax Act, 1961 Attention is invited to Board's Circular No. 25-D (LXIII-4) of 1965, dated the 13th August, 1965 wherein it was stated that at different stages of proceedings u/s 132(i) the Director of Inspection or the Commissioner of Income-tax and the authorised officer must apply their minds and form opinion as to the relevancy or usefulness of books of accounts and other documents, Shri S. Narayan, the then Chairman, C.B.D.T., also stressed in his confidential D.O.F.No. 286/36/77-IT(INV), dated the 25th May, 1977, that there should be no indiscriminate seizure. It has been repeatedly stressed that the authorised officer must apply his mind and restrict the seizure to books of account and documents which have not been produced, or in his judgement, would not be produced. 2. Complaints are being received in the Board about indiscriminate seizure and inordinate delay in release of books of accounts and documents. In order to ensure that books etc. not useful for assessment/prosecution proceedings are not unnecessarily retained by the Department, the Assessing officer should complete the scrutiny of books as are no longer required to be retained should be released before proposal for further retention of the books is sent to CIT. Further retention of the books should not be approved as a routine matter and the Assessing Officers should review from time to time whether part of the seized books could further be released. Even in cases where the books cannot be released for any reason the assessee should be permitted to take extracts/photostat copies and it should be ensured that no inconvenience is caused to him. 3. These instructions may please be brought to the notice of all the officers working in your charge.