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TMI BlogCourt fee or stamp duty payable on power of attorney or vakalatnama filed before Income-tax Officer/on applications or petitions filed before Commissioner and other income-tax authoritiesX X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... p Act. 2. The issue raised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India was considered earlier in the Board's Circular No. 9 (XL-48) of 1958, dated 18-5-1958 and No. 3-P(LX-69) of 1968, dated 20-2-1968 [printed here as Clarifications 3 and 2]. In the Circular of 1958 the Board directed, after a very careful consideration of the question whether accountants and income-tax practitioners should file vakalatnama or power-of-attorney and, if the latter, what were the scales of court fees or stamp duty leviable thereon: "A document purporting to authorise a person who is not a pleader or mukhtar duly appointed under section 7 of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879, is not a vakalatnama or a mukhtarnama and requires to be stamped as a power- ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ioners and chartered accountants before the income-tax authority may be governed by the Court Fees Act in view of the decision of the erstwhile Punjab Chief Court in Ganpat v. Prem Singh [1912] 15 IC 122 wherein it was held that the power-of-attorney empowering any person to represent another in a civil court should be governed only by the provisions of the Court Fees Act and not by the Stamp Act. Circular : No. 125 [F.No. 274/1/73-ITJ], dated 26-11-1973. CLARIFICATION 2 1. In the case of L.M. Mahurkar v. STO [1967] 66 ITR 561, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court have held that as sales tax authority is a revenue court, the letters of authorisation presented before it should be governed by the Court Fees Act and not by the Indian S ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e provisions of the Stamp Act as in force in the particular area, i.e., subject to the local amendments. Circular : No. 9 (XL-48), dated 18-5-1958. Clarification 4 A question has been raised as to which of the applications or petitions presented before the Commissioner of Income-tax and the Central Board of Revenue are liable to Court fees as per item No. 3 of the Schedule annexed to the Board's Circular No. 50(XL-43), dated 28-12-1956 [printed here as Clarification 5]. The Board have been advised that all applications or petitions or representations which invoke any jurisdiction, authority, power, discretion, etc., whether real or supposed, vested in the Commissioner of Income-tax or the Central Board of Revenue under the Income-tax Ac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ner of Income-tax ; and (h) applications for remission of post-certificate interest (or cost) demanded by the Certificate Officer. B. Not liable to court fee : (a) petitions requesting for directions to the Income-tax Officer about undue delay in the issue of refunds ; and (b) complaints and representations against harassment caused by the Officers of the Income-tax Department. The above illustrations are by no means exhaustive. The Commissioners, however, need not be unduly meticulous in this matter and in doubtful cases the discretion should always be exercised in favour of the assessees. So far as petitions under section 33A are concerned, the exemption from court fees, as mentioned on page 542 of the Income-tax Manual, Part III ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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