Survey Organisation. - Income Tax - 1529/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 1529/CBDT Dated: September 23, 1983 A lot of information is collected by the Officers of the Department through various Government agencies, from Departmental files or by receiving it from other sister Departments. A system by which this information could be properly disseminated, used and its use monitored, has been under consideration of the Board for sometime. A new system has been devised which should be put into operation immediately. The salient features of this system are described as below:- 2. Collection of Information:- (i) The main agency for collecting information, its collation, dissemination and follow-up will be Central Information Branch Units in each Commissioners charge. At present the C.I.B Unit wherever Cs.I.T.(Inv.) exist, are under their charge. In other charges, this should be a part of Survey Organisation under the C.I.T., having jurisdiction over Survey. The I.A.C. in charge of Survey should also be in charge of the C.I.B. Unit. (ii) The system wherever existed, of sending intimation slips by the I.T.Os. will be discontinued. The intimation will be sent by the C.I.B. This will however not apply to the intimation of share of profits arrived at by the I.T.O. assessing a firm. He will continue to intimate the share of profits to the I.T.O. assessing partners. (iii) Wherever routine information is to be sent from a file, for instance, sales and purchases over 10,000 rupees or other similar information, that information should also be routed through the C.I.B. Information, specifically requisitioned, or in response to queries from other officers may however be sent directly. (iv) Information from various Government agencies and internal sources is being collected by the Survey Organisation in terms of the Survey Action Plan circulated by the Board vide letter No. 414/23/82-IT (INV.) dated 24th May, 1982. This plan has listed 85 sources from which the information is to be collected in a phased programme. The Inspectors who collect these informations should be a part of C.I.B. Organisation. Wherever this is not being done, it should be done immediately. The I.T.O./I.A.C., incharge of C.I.B. Unit should also supervise, plan and monitor the working of Inspectors engaged in the collection of information. 3. Disseminaton of Information:- (i) After the information is received in the C.I.B. Organisation, a letter of inquiry will be issued for each piece of information to the address available, to find out whether the addressee acknowledges information and whether he is an existing assessee. A specimen form of the letter is given as annexure I, to these instructions. In most of the cases this specimen letter would do but the commissioners may modify the letter according to needs of the information to be verified. If there is no acknowledgement from the addressee or there is no reply then the feasibility of issuing statutory notice for filing relevant return (IT/WT/GT etc.) should be examined by the I.T.O. in charge of C.I.B. and the information may be forwarded to the I.T.O. having jurisdiction for initiating action. In this connection it may be remembered that in most of the charges the jurisdiction over new cases is now with the Survey Organisation itself. In case where it is not considered necessary to issue a statutory notice calling for return of income/wealth/Gift etc. the proceeding initiated by the letter of enquiry will be closed by the C.I.B. (ii) The responsibility of identifying the I.T.O. having jurisdiction to whom the information is to be passed is that of the C.I.B. Unit. ISSUE OF CARDS:- 4. The information will be disseminated in the form of card known as Intimation Card. This Card has been designed to involve the minimum labour in filling the Card and indicating the action taken on the basis of information. (ii) A specimen of the Card is enclosed as Annexure 2. Commissioners may get these printed in their own charges. (iii) The Cards will be in two colours namely Red and Green. The Red Card will be for important information which includes:- (A) All information of the value of Rs. one lakh and over. (B) Following pieces of information even though these are less than Rs. one lakh. (a) Details regarding tours abroad where an amount of Rs. 10,000 or more is spent per individual. (b) Expenditure exceeding Rs. 5,000 incurred in luxury hotels by private parties for booking suites for long periods, entertainment or in connection with marriage celebrations etc. (c) Commission of over 5,000 received from Finance and Investment Cos. particularly from M/s Peerless Finance and Investment Company. (d) Information gathered u/s 133-A in respect of parties other than those in respect of whom action u/s 133-A is taken. (e) Information gathered as a result of action u/s.132 in respect of parties other than those searched. (f) Payment over 5,000 to surgeons and doctors by Nursing Home Clinics. (g) Payments over 5,000 to surgeons and doctors by patients. (h) List of residents who have paid more than 2,500 a year to guest houses. (i) Payment to a club made by any member more than 5,000 a year. (j) Payment made over 5,000 a year in Public Residential Schools and parents whose children are studying there. (k) Major bills above 5,000 a year to Dinner's Club. 5. Distribution of Cards, Action thereon:- (i) These cards will be prepared in triplicate, one for the C.I.B Unit as office copy, one for the I.T.O. and one copy will be the transit copy which the I.T.O. will return to the C.I.B. after marking on it the action taken. (ii) Where action has to be initiated by a Survey I.T.O. and that Survey I.T.O is situated in the same station as the C.I.B Unit the information will be taken personally by a C.I.B. official to the assessing Survey I.T.O. He will get the relevant notice issued and fill column of action taken in the Card and close the proceedings as far as the C.I.B. is concerned. (iii) Green Cards will be sent to the I.T.O. (in duplicate i.e. Transit Copy and the I.T.Os. copy) directly for action. Red Cards will be sent (in duplicate) again monthly to the Range I.A.Cs. along with a list in duplicate. He will forward them to the concerned I.T.Os. and return a copy of the list to the C.I.B. indicating the designation of the I.T.Os to whom the Card has been sent. (iv) I.T.Os. on receipt of the Card will take necessary action and then make an entry in the appropriate column showing the nature of the action taken and send back the transit copy to the C.I.B. Unit. (v) When the card pertains to the Area beyond control of the issuing C.I.B. in whose jurisdiction the Card falls, the receiving C.I.B. Unit, will allot a new serial number of this information and follow it up in the normal way. The transit copy of the Card received by them will be sent back to the issuing Unit after the new serial number has been allotted. 6. FOLLOW-UP/INSPECTION;- C.I.B.Unit will also be concerned with the follow up of information sent and its utilisation. (i) For Red Cards C.I.B. will keep a record of the receipt of the cards and will ensure that 100% cards are received back and adequate action has been taken by the I.T.O. (ii) As far as Green Cards are concerned the C.I.B. Unit will carry out a test check of the cards not returned and point out also the instances of inordinate delays of inadequate action taken to DI (Survey) and the C.I.T. Adequate remedial action may be taken by the C.I.T., D.I.(Survey). (iii) I.A.Cs. and C.I.Ts in their inspection will also comment on the Cards received and see whether action has been promptly and adequately taken. 7. NUMBERING OF THE CARDS;- Each Card will be serially numbered. It will have its serial number, and code number of the source of information, the designation of the issuing C.I.B. Unit and the month and year of issue. The code numbers of sources have been indicated in the Survey Action plan circulated by the Board vide their letter No.414/23/82-IT(INV.) dated 24th May, 1982. The issuing C.I.B. can be designated by the Charge to which the C.I.B.Unit belongs. For instance if a Card is issued for the information collected relating to 'Asiad 1982' and is issued for Delhi C.I.B. in Sept.1982 this will bear a serial number as below:- 018/401/DLI/0982. This means that the Card has been issued by the Sources of information, code No.018 (Asiad '82). It bears a serial number of 401. It has been issued from C.I.B. Delhi and is issued in Sept. 1982. 8. STAFFING:- Success of this Scheme depends entirely on an efficient C.I.B.Unit. Presumably in a number of charges the CIB Unit exist and the work can straight away be allotted to them. In this connection, reference is invited to Board's Circular No.415/14/76-IT(INV), dated 19.3.1977, the information of CIB Unit was directed and the staff for each CIB Unit was prescribed as under:- I.T.O 1 Inspectors 4 U.D.Cs 4 L.D.Cs 2 It is hoped that such Units exist in the various charges. Wherever they are not existing the Commissioners are requested to constitute these units immediately from their existing staff and place them under the Survey Organisation. Number of Units will depend upon the work load in each charge. 9. A report on the working of the Scheme may be sent to the D.I. (Survey) in April, 1984. For clarifications and suggestions also D.I.(Survey) may be addressed in the first instance.