Procedure for collection, collation and dissemination of information. - Income Tax - 1759/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 1759/CBDT Dated: June 11, 1987 Instruction No. 1529 dated 23rd September, 1983 laid down a system for collection, collation and dissemination of information, prescribed for Central Information Branch. In view of the revised organisational set up for the Investigation Wing, under which CIB Units have been brought under the administrative control of the Directors of Inspection (Inv.), it has become necessary to modify the system. A change in procedure is also warranted, in certain respects, as a consequence of Board's decision that verification of items of information collected by the CIB Units should be done by the units themselves in accordance with the Action Plan targets. The succeeding paragraphs lay down the revised procedure to be followed henceforth. 2.Collection and collation of information The main agency for collecting information and its collation, verification and dissemination will be the Central Information Branch. The source(s) (both internal and external) of information for purposes of such collection will be notified from time to time in the Action Plans. Inspectors in the Central Information Branches will collect information from the sources identified for this purpose for the year. The DDI(Inv.) in consultation with DI(Inv.) will fix the ceilings of monetary limits for collection of information. The D.I.(Inv.) may at their discretion vary the monetary limits for collection of information from various sources from those specified in Survey Action Plan, taking into account all relevant factors like workload and man-power available in their respective zones. The information collected will be entered in a register in the CIB unit in the proforma given in Annexure-II. 2.2. The CIB units will confine themselves to the collection of such information as specified by D.I.(Inv.). As a consequence, all routine information coming to the Department which are not required in CIB will be passed on by the CIT's office directly to the assessing officers concerned. Similarly routine information received by CIB units will also be passed on to the concerned CIT for necessary action without being entered in the Information Receipt Register. 3. Verification of Information Out of the information received in CIB, the DDI(Inv.) will fix target for verifications of items in consultation with the DI(Inv.) that should be taken up for verification. In the first instance in respect of any item taken up for verification a letter will be sent to the person concerned requiring him to indicate whether he accepts the correctness of the information and to furnish brief particulars regarding his Income-tax matter. A format of this letter is at *Annexure-I. 3.2. The letter will be sent by ordinary post for a reply to be given in 15 days time. In the letter it will be indicated that in case the addressee does not respond, it may be necessary to summon him to the Income-tax Office. Thus, if the letter is not responded to or the particulars required have not been properly given in the reply, a detailed letter will be issued, accompanied by a summons seeking full particulars of the item of information enquired into. The summons will be issued by an ADI. 3.3. On receipt of the particulars called for and/or after making further enquiries, if the ITO CIB comes to the conclusion that no action is required he will record accordingly. In case some action is to be taken by the concerned assessing officer, action required should be indicated. The final outcome of verification done should be recorded in a register in the form given at *Annexure-II. 4. Dissemination of Information At the end of every month the CIB unit, under the signature of the DDI (Inv.), will send to the CIT's office concerned a complete list of items which on verification were found to be requiring further action by the assessing officer. Brief particulars of the item of information, the verification done and the action required will be indicated in this report. Any item of information received in the CIT's office from the CIB unit, if it pertains to another CITs charge, should be sent to the other CIT under intimation to CIB. It should not be sent back to the CIB unit. 5. Monitoring of Utilisation of Information by CsIT Commissioner of Income-tax will maintain in their offices a register as per format at *Annexure-IV for recording the monthly reports received from the CIB unit in respect of cases where action is required to be taken by the field officers and will pass on the information to the assessing officers. CITs will also be responsible for monitoring the utilisation of the information received from the CIB units. 5.2. In the course of inspection of the assessing officer's work, it should particularly be seen whether a record of information from CIB received through the CIT is kept and action taken in accordance with the recommendations made by the CIB. 6. Detailed instructions regarding the maintenance of Register prescribed in Annexure-II, III IV are contained in *Annexure-V.