90% of I-T arrears owed by just 12 people: CAG

The Comptroller and Auditor General has said that 90 per cent of the country's income tax (I-T) arrears are owed by just a dozen individuals, led by Pune-based stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan.

Government auditor CAG also noted in a report that these demands are "unrealisable 100 per cent".

Khan, with a tax arrear demand of Rs 50,345.73 crore (Rs 503.46 billion) is followed by Chandrika Tapuriah, wife of his associate Kashi Nath Tapuria, with an outstanding of Rs 20,540.83 crore (Rs 205.41 billion), while late stock broker Harshad Mehta owes Rs 15,944.38 crore (Rs 159.44 billion) in arrears.

"The demand against individuals is highly skewed, with 12 individuals (4.3 per cent of the total cases) accounting for 90 per cent of the arrear demand.

One individual Hasan Ali Khan accounts for 43 per cent of the total arrear demand... interestingly all of this demand is categorised as unrealisable," CAG said in the report tabled in Parliament.

Khan, along with the Tapuriah couple, is embroiled in a number of cases ranging from money laundering, tax evasion and passport forgery which are being probed by various agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department.

The government, in August this year, had also disclosed the names of the "top 10 individual defaulters" for Income Tax assessment year 2009-10.

Apart from Hasan Ali and Harshad Mehta, they included Kashinath Tapuriah (Rs 602.80 crore), A D Narrotam (Rs 5,781.86 crore), Hiten P Dalal (Rs 4,200.04 crore), Jyoti H Mehta (Rs 1,739.57 crore), Ashwin S Mehta (Rs 1,595.51 crore), B C Dalal (1,535.89 crore), S Ramaswamy (Rs 1,122.48 crore) and Uday M Acharya (Rs 683.22 crore).

CAG said the government has a huge tax demand of Rs 1.96 lakh crore, of which 84 per cent can't be realised due to various reasons like death, insolvency and liquidation of company.

Source : Rediff.com

ITGOA agitation for promotion and cadre review : An Update

It is learnt from ITGOA site that CBDT called Secretary General of ITGOA and informed that they are puruing the matter with UPSC and DOPT for an early promotion. The Secy Gen. insisted for adhoc promotion for withdrawal of ongoing agitattion.
A reliable source also informed that adhoc promotion from ITO to ACIT is likely to be materialize in the last week of December.

ITGOA continues agitation to fill up more than 700 ACIT posts

The Income Tax Gazetted Officers Association, the organization representing about 8,500 promottee officers of the Income Tax Department, has embarked upon an agitation programme from 25/10/2011, demanding filling up of more than 700 posts of Assistant Commissioners of Income Tax. Vacancy for the years 2010-11 and 2011-12 have not been filled up, with a delay of 17  months and 7 months respectively. The department is already facing acute shortage of manpower both at the staff and officers level, especially at the cutting edge level i.e. Assistant Commissioners of Income Tax, who are looking after the very big assessments, thus play a very crucial role in revenue collection.

            These vacant positions are being shared by the existing officers, by holding additional charges, which due to acute shortage of staff members results in unmanageable workload, causing disruption in tax payer service and revenue collection. The much needed cadre review & restructuring exercise to provide additional manpower, to meet growing number assesses and related assessment work, has been pending for more than two years.

            Considering the utter frustration of Income Tax Officers who are languishing without any promotion for around 13/14 years, despite sufficient vacancies, ITGOA had served a notice dated 10-10-2011, on the Chairman, CBDT informing about the proposed agitation starting from 25-10-2011, if the promotion from ITO to ACIT is not granted by that date. As the CBDT has failed to meet the deadline, ITGOA is constrained to adopt the following mode of agitation :

a.  Boycott & protest in front of Chairman & Members-CBDT on their official visits.

b.  Non-submission of statistical reports including dossier reports.

c.  Only time-barring assessment work to be undertaken.

d.  Black-badge & Candle-light march on 03-11-2011.

e.  Non-conduct of Survey u/s.133-A including TDS Survey/Verification etc.

f.   Mass Walk-out from 2.00 PM on 15-11-2011

The agitation will be further intensified thereafter, including strike.

            ITEF (Income Tax Employees Federation) has committed moral support for the above agitation, as the promotion from ITO to ACIT will be percolating upto the juniormost official in the Department and Cadre Review & Restructuring will provide adequate staff & officers, thereby taking care of the work-load. Besides, these demand will surely boost the Revenue, which is primary for sustaining the developmental work undertaken by the Government.

(Rajesh Menon)

Secretary General

ORDER NO. 175 OF 2011- Ad. VI.(adhoc promotion to the grade of JCIT (OSD))

Long awaited promotion from DCIT to JCIT released
ORDER NO. 175 OF 2011- Ad. VI.(adhoc promotion to the grade of JCIT (OSD))

New form for PAN application, with two colour photos.

Income Tax Dept has notified new form and instruction for PAN application. This will come into effect from 1st day of November 2011

View the Notification

View the Instructions

Download New Form 49A for PAN application

Government increases collection target, silent on cadre review proposal

The finance ministry has revised the Budget estimate of direct tax collection upwards by Rs 53,000 crore to Rs 5.85 lakh crore. The higher target is an increase of 31% over last yearas collection of Rs 4.46 lakh crore. The increase is intended to bridge the shortfall that might occur due to reduction in customs duty on crude oil to offset price rise. But it has invited strong reaction from Income Tax officials, who are grappling with staff shortage.

Dept. Exam for ITOs and ITI's : Download Admit Card.

Download Admit Cards for DE 2011.


Calculator Allowed in examination
"You are aware that the "Examination Rules" notified by the Board for the year 2011 prohibits the use of Calculator by the candidates in the Examination. Upon representation from various circles, we took up the matter with the Chairman and the same was subjected to discussion in the quarterly meeting with the Chairman held on 20^th July, 2011. The Chairman was of the opinion that calculators should be allowed since the same is being used for the day to day work also. The official version contained in the minutes of that meeting circulated by the Board vide F No. B-12020/2/2011-Ad.IX dated 17.08.2011 is as under:

"The staff side demanded that calculators should be allowed in the exam.

The Chairman opined that in view of present scenario of technology upgradation, the demand could be considered justified as it would test their skill in the use of such gadgets. He asked DIT (Exam) to examine this issue and make appropriate proposal."

We are yet to hear from the Directorate whether it has got the proposal approved and instructions issued to the field formations.Meanwhile you may inform the candidates that they may use the calculator in the Departmental Examination wherever necessary."

Source : ITEF

Digital Signature mandatory for efiling of Firms/Indvs u/s 44AB

Digital Signature Certificate made mandatory w.e.f 1st July 2011 for Firms and Individuals whose accounts are required to be audited u/s 44 AB of the Income Tax Act' 1961.
Earlier it was mandatory only for companies. 
View the Notification

IT Cadre review and restructure : information regarding field structure sought.

DIT(HRD), CBDT urgently sought information regarding field structure for proposed restructuring of the Income Tax Dept.

This information is to be sent by all CCIT/CITs on an urgent basis. Only today(26/07) evening it has been faxed from Delhi. In this light it can be assumed that the process is very near to finalization.

View the details

Rs 80 crores to be disbursed against 1% incentive scheme for 09-10.

Committee to recommend schemes for utilization of 1% incremental revenue of Rs.80.63 crore earned during F.Y. 2009-10 - reg.
View the details 

Department has sought suggestion from all officers/officials in this regard, which has to be submitted within 25th July 2011 for consideration by a high powered committee. It may be mailed to navneet.manohar@nic.in 

A section of employees have demanded laptop for Group C employees....."

"a proposal to the empowered committee to provide laptop/notebook to all Group C employees in the department out of the amount sanctioned for incremental revenue of Rs 80.63 crores earned during F.Y. 2009-10.

It may be mentioned that only the Group C and formerly Group D employees were left out from the earlier scheme of distributing incentive. As the department is putting thrust and more importance in outdoor activities like search/survey, enquiries/ holding seminars and awareness programmes, it will be an added infrastructural boost up for the employees who have to work outside the normal duty hours and workplace."

Income Tax Departmental Examination in September this year.

In the year 2011, the dept. exam for ITOs/ITIs will commence on 14th September and Ministerial Exam will start on 21st September.

Ministerial Exam will be held as per the existing rules and will be descriptive as usual.

Last Date of application for exam : 29.07.2011

View the detailed circular and Time Table.

Income Tax Cadre Review and Restructuring may be cleared in a month

Following are the excerpts from the ITEF blog. 
"...Shri. Prakash Chandra, Chairman, CBDT was in Mumbai on 28^th and 29^thJuly, 2011(It must be a typing error, please consider it as "June".).  We took the opportunity to meet him and discuss certain issues:  We give hereunder the issues raised and his response thereon:

1.        Cadre restructuring Proposal:  Chairman informed us that the Director in CBDT has been asked to interact with the concerned in DOPT to clarify the points raised by them so as to avoid the delay.  He expects to get the clearance of DOPT within a month's time.

2.       Pending Issues:  We have handed over him a copy of the minutes of the last formal meeting with his predecessor.  He has assured to get the orders/instructions issued by the Board wherever further discussions are not needed.  He will meet the representatives of ITEF on 8^th July,2011 at New Delhi and if the ongoing JPC meetings are concluded he would meet and address the pending issues on that day itself or shall indicate the date convenient to him.

3.       Video Conferencing:  We have pointed out the futility of participating in the present format of video conferencing as there is little time to present the case and get response.  We have suggested that in view of the paucity of time, the representatives of a particular zone alone may be permitted to raise the issue, so that over a period everybody will get time to interact with the Chairman. Chairman was appreciative of this suggestion and would like to be presented the same for his consideration formally.  We seek you view in the matter.  What we intend to propose is as under.

A.      The date and time of video conferencing will be intimated well in advances.

B.      Only the issues a particular zone will be discussed in one conference. The others will have to await their turn for the next and subsequent conferences.

C.      The issues concerning a particular charge taken up with the CCITs but not resolved due to the absence of approval or clarification from Board will be raised.

D.      The query with the relevant information maybe e-mailed to the Chairman well in advance so that a proper decision could be conveyed in the conference itself.

E.       All India issues, which are being addressed  formally in the bilateral meetings need not be raised unless the action on decisions are delayed or decisions taken are not followed up by the section heads of the Board.

We feel that if this arrangement is agreed upon, the conference will have a smooth and orderly functioning and everybody will get an opportunity to get their long pending issues projected before the Chairman...."

Income Tax Return relief for salaried taxpayers

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) yesterday notified that salaried individuals having a total income up to Rs 5 lakh after allowable deductions, including salary from one employer and interest income from deposits in a savings bank account of up to Rs 10,000, need not file income tax returns.

TDS certificate From 16A to be downloaded and issued.

Form No. 16A now generated from Tax Information Network (TIN). Mandatory for Companies and Banks to issue Form 16A from TIN to their deductees for deductions made from April 1, 2011 (F.Y. 2011-12).

CIRCULAR NO. 03 /2011

F. No 275/34/2011-( IT-B)

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, dated the   13^th  May, 2011

Subject: Issuance of TDS Certificates in Form No. 16A downloaded from TIN Website and option to authenticate the same by way of digital signature – Circular under section 119 of the Income-tax Act 1961.

  Section 203 of the Income-tax Act 1961 (‘the Act’) read with the Rule 31 of the Income-tax Rules 1962 (‘the IT Rules’) provides for furnishing of certificate of tax deduction at source (TDS) by the deductor to the deductee specifying therein the prescribed particulars like amount of TDS, permanent account number (PAN), tax deduction and collection account number (TAN), etc.  The relevant form for such TDS certificate is Form No.16 in case of deduction under section 192 and Form No.16A for deduction under any other provisions of Chapter XVII-B of the Act. TDS certificate in Form No.16 is to be issued annually whereas TDS certificate in Form No.16A is to be issued quarterly.

2.        Currently, a deductor has an option to authenticate TDS certificate in Form No.16 by using a digital signature.  However, no such option of using a digital signature is available to a deductor for issuing TDS certificate in Form No.16A and it, therefore, needs to be authenticated by a manual signature. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (the Board)  has received representations to allow the option of using digital signature for authentication of TDS certificate in Form No.16A as issuance of TDS certificate in Form No.16A by manual signature is very time consuming, specially for deductors who are required to issue a large number of TDS certificates.

3.        The Department has already enabled the online viewing of Form No.26AS by deductees which contains TDS details of the deductee based on the TDS statement (e-TDS statement)filed electronically by the deductor.  Ideally, there should not be any mismatch between the figures reported in TDS certificate in Form No. 16A issued by the deductor and figures contained in Form No.26AS which has been generated on the basis of e-TDS statement filed by the deductor.  However, it has been found that in some cases the figures contained in Form No.26AS are different from the figures reported in Form No.16A. The gaps in Form No.26AS and TDS certificate in Form No. 16A arise mainly on account of wrong data entry by the deductor or non-filing of e-TDS statement by the deductor.  As at present, the activity of issuance of Form No.16A is distinct and independent of

                                                                                                  Contd p-2

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 filing of e-TDS statement, the chances of mismatch between TDS certificate in Form No.16A and Form No.26AS cannot be completely ruled out. To overcome the challenge of mismatch a common link has now been created between the TDS certificate in Form No.16A and Form No.26AS through a facility in the Tax Information Network website (TIN Website) which will enable a deductor to download TDS certificate in Form No.16A from the TIN Website based on the figures reported in e-TDS statement filed by him.  As both Form No.16A and Form No.26AS will be generated on the basis of figures reported by the deductor in the e-TDS statement filed, the likelihood of mismatch between Form No.16A and Form No.26AS will be completely eliminated. 

4.        In view of the above, for proper administration of the Act, the Board have, in exercise of powers under section 119 of the Act, decided the following :-

                                                                                                 

4.1 ISSUE OF TDS CERTIFICATE IN FORM NO. 16A

 (i) For deduction of tax at source made on or after 01/04/2011:

(a) The deductor, being a company including a banking company to which the Banking Regulation Act,1949 applies and any bank or banking institution, referred to in section 51 of that Act or a co-operative society engaged in carrying the the business of banking, shall issue TDS certificate in Form No.16A generated through TIN central system and which is downloaded from the TIN Website with a unique TDS certificate number in respect of all sums deducted on or after the 1st day of April, 2011 under any of the provisions of Chapter-XVII-B other than section 192.

(b)                         The deductor, being a person other than the person referred to in item (a) above, may, at his option, issue TDS Certificate in Form No.16A generated through TIN central system and which is downloaded from the TIN Website with a unique TDS certificate number in respect of all sums deducted on or after the 1st day of April, 2011 under any provisions of Chapter-XVII-B other than section 192.

(ii) For deduction of tax at source made during financial year 2010-11:

The deductor, may, at his option, issue the TDS certificate in Form No.16A generated through TIN central system which is downloaded from the TIN Website with a unique TDS certificate number in respect of all sums deducted during the financial year 2010-11 under any of the provisions of Chapter-XVII-B other than section 192.

Contd p-3

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4.2      AUTHENTICATION OF TDS CERTIFICATE IN FORM NO.16A

(i)   The deductor, issuing the TDS certificate in Form No.16A by downloading from the TIN Website shall authenticate such TDS certificate by either using digital signature or manual signature

(ii)  The deductor being a person other than a person referred to in item 4.1(i)(a) above and who do not issue the TDS Certificate in Form No.16A by downloading from the TIN Website shall continue to authenticate TDS certificate in From No.16A by manual signature only.

5.        The Director General of Income-tax (Systems) shall specify the procedure, formats and standards for the purpose of issuance of TDS certificate in Form No.16A which is downloaded from the TIN Website and shall be responsible for the day-to-day administration in relation to the procedure, formats and standards for  issuance of TDS certificate in Form No.16A in electronic form.

6.        It is further clarified that TDS certificate issued in Form No. 16A by the deductors covered  by  para 4.1(1)(a) in accordance with this circular and procedure, format  and standards specified by the Director General of Income-tax (Systems) shall only be treated as a vilid TDS certificate in Form No. 16A for the purpose of section 203 of the Act read with Rule 31 of the IT Rules,1962.    

7.        Hindi version shall follow.

(AJAY KUMAR)

Director (Budget)

Tel.No.2309-2641

Transparency in Survey operations : Instruction from CBDT.

For bringing transparency in survey operations and obviate the possibility of any grievance to the taxpayers, it is decided that henceforth:

        I.            Survey teams visiting taxpayer’s premises under the provisions of section 133 A of the Income tax Act will, before the commencement of  survey proceedings,provide to the taxpayer the names, designations & contact numbers of their Chief Commissioner, Commissioner &Additional/ Joint   Commissioner of Income Tax.

     II.            Inform the taxpayer that in case of any grievance or otherwise, he is free to contact Chief Commissioner /Commissioner /Addl Commissioner/Joint Commissioner of Income Tax.

In order to give effect to the above instruction, survey parties will invariably carry in their survey kit names, designations & contact numbers of their CCIT / CIT / Addl / JCIT in the following proforma, on which, as a proof of implementation of above directions, signature of the taxpayer surveyed would be obtained. The said proforma, duly signed by the taxpayer,would be submitted back to the CIT,to be preserved as permanent record.

SN	Designation	Name	Contact Numbers (Landline)	Cell Number

Income below Rs 5 lakh? You need not file returns

The government has exempt salaried people earning up to Rs 500,000 annually from filing income tax returns.  A move that will bring relief to about 80 lakh people was announced by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee when he presented the Budget in February.  On Tuesday, Pranab Mukherjee said this will be applicable in the 2011-12 assessment year for the income earned in 2010-11. He said that a notice to this effect will be brought out soon.

This move will reduce the compliance burden on small taxpayers. In case such a salary earner has income from other sources like dividend,interest etc. and does not want to file returns, he will have to disclose such income to his employer for tax deduction.

The Form 16 issued to salaried employees will be treated as Income Tax Return, he added.

Income Tax exemption on 9.5% interest on PF for 2010-11

Giving relief to 4.71 crore subscribers of EPFO, the government has allowed tax exemption on the 9.5 per cent interest income on PF deposits for 2010-11.

The Finance Ministry notification last week raises the income tax exemption to 9.5 per cent interest income from 8.5 per cent.

The decision clears the air for the EPFO subscribers who were given increased interest rate by one percentage point for 2010-11, but the Finance Ministry had not matched the interest hike with a commensurate tax exemption.

In the absence of the commensurate income tax exemption, the subscribers were earning higher returns even as it was liable to income tax.

EPFO had decided to provide 9.5 per cent interest rate on PF deposits for 2010-11 after which it was endorsed by the Finance Ministry in March this year.
Source : PTI

Result of Departmental Examination 2010 for ITOs published

The Directorate of Income Tax (IT) has issued the result of Departmental Examination 2010 for ITOs.The certified copy shall be made available by the concerned CCIT/CIT(Exams i/c) only. Before declaring the result, the concerned CCIT/CIT (EXAM i/c) are requested to verify the eligibility of Partially Qualified (PQ) candidates with respect to the no. of attempts and earlier subject exemptions. Similarly only those SC/ST candidates, who have earlier qualified the Departmental Examinations, either under the old pattern or the new pattern with relaxed standards, are eligible for availing "Betterment Chance.


View the result(General)


View The Result for SC/ST


View Individual Result
View Result in OLD Syllabus (Genl)
View Result in Old Syllabus (SC/ST)

Result of Departmental Examination 2010 for ITIs published

The Directorate of Income Tax(IT) has declared the result of Departmental Examination 2010.The certified copy shall be made available by the concerned CCIT/CIT(Exam i/c)only. As per the present grace mark policy, maximum 5 grace marks in aggregate are allowed in one or more subjects to fully pass the Examination. However, for availing exemption only in an individual subject, a candidate is given maximum 2% grace marks i.e. maximum 2 marks if the paper is of 100 marks. This gracing policy has been applied while processing the result. 
Click Here to view the result 
Click Here to view Indv Result by Roll No./Appl. No.

Salient points of CBDT’s cadre-restructuring proposal

Salient points of CBDT’s cadre-restructuring proposal

S No.	Post/ Designation	Grade/Pay Scale	Existing	Proposed
1	Principal CC/ Director General	Apex Scale Rs. 80,000	nil	29
2	CCIT	(HAG+) Rs. 75,500-80,000	nil	88
3	Sr. CIT /Sr. DIT/ ADG/ équivalent	(HAG) 67000-79000	116	333
4	CIT/DIT/ JDG/ equivalent	(SAG)PB-4, Gr. pay Rs. 10,000	731	602
5	Addl. CIT/ Addl. DIT/ equivalent	(NFSG)PB-4, Grade pay Rs. 8700	606	606
6	Jt. CIT/ Jt. DIT/ equivalent	(JAG) PB-3 Gr. pay Rs.7600	647	969
7	Dy. CIT/ Dy. DIT/equivalent	(STS) PB-3 Gr. pay Rs. 6600	1358	1601
8	Asst. CIT/ Asst. DIT/ equivalent	(JTS)PB-3 Grade pay Rs. 5400	734	1091
9	Reserves	(JTS)PB-3 Grade pay Rs. 5400	nil	760
10	ITO Gp-B	PB-2, GP Rs. 5400 & Rs. 4800	4448	6056
11	Sr. PPS PPS Sr. PS PS	PB-3, GPRs.6600 PB-3, GP Rs.5400 PB-2, GP Rs.4800 PB-2, GP Rs.4200	0 0 117 706	0 0 450 602
		Sub. Total	823	1051
12	Pr. AO Sr. AO AO Gr. II AO Gr. III	PB-3, GP Rs.6600 PB-3, GP Rs.5400 PB-2, GP Rs.4800 PB-2, GP Rs.4200	5 0 35 774	29 0 421 1049
		Sub. Total	814	1499
13	ITI	PB-2, GP Rs.4200	9094	13521
14	Ex Asstt.(SrTA, OS/ Steno I & II/ DEO)	PB-2, GP Rs.4200	13867	19951
15	TA/ Steno III	PB-2, GP Rs.2400	11409	15123
16	Notice Server	PB-2, GP Rs.1900	2855	4088
17	Group C (Upgraded from Group D)	PB-2, GP Rs.1800	7365	11138
18	Reserves (B & C)	PB-2, GP Rs.1800	nil	1125

The proposal is being pursued by the Chairman personally.

Restructuring of the EDP and OL cadres will follow soon.