The Income Tax Gazetted Officers’ Association (ITGOA) has questioned the process of assessment and verification of cash transactions by the Income Tax Department during the 50-day period after the announcement of demonetisation of high value currency notes. The organisation has termed the process a ‘mess’ and accused the higher-ups in the department of making it difficult for field-level officers by issuing contradictory orders for conducting assessments.
The I-T Department is assessing transactions of ₹10 lakh and more in banned currency of ₹500 and ₹1,000, during the period in question, aiming to collect due tax to be credited into the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). The task being huge, the assessing officers are under considerable pressure and the ever-changing orders issued verbally/telephonically have only made the work worse for them.
“We submitted a representation to the Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes listing our difficulties and demands on March 28 with March 31 being the last date for such assessments. Nothing has happened so far,” revealed a concerned ITGOA Secretary General Bhaskar Bhattacharya, speaking to The Hindu over phone.
The Association has accused the higher-ups in the department of violating its own Standard Operations Procedure (SOP) 2017, especially the instruction that bars assessing officers from any inter-personal interactions with assessees.
“The assessing officers were suddenly asked to conduct surveys on the basis of cash deposit information in order to pressurise the recalcitrant assessees to commit to participating in the PMGKY,” reads an accusation in the representation.
Another grouse that the ITGOA raised is the handling of unreasonable number of cases and dealing with ‘impossible’ targets and sending daily reports of 20 to 24 columns which, among other aspects, consists of number of assessees who committed themselves for PMGKY and the amount committed.
The Association has made a plea not to push for information at the fag end of the financial year.
The representation of the ITGOA has listed as many as seven points that constitutes the ‘sorry’ state of affairs so far as verification of accounts was concerned under the respective Principal Chief Commissioners of Income Tax. All of these relate to day-to-day functioning of the assessing officers.
In the light of grievances, the Association has demanded clear and uniform guidelines and directions by the CBDT in writing to all the Principal Chief Commissioners of Income Tax across the country.
It also demanded, in writing, issuance of categorical directions on initiation of any coercive measures to collect tax.
