L&T Infotech bags '$100 million contract' to help pin down tax evaders

The ambitious initiative to use social media analytics to identify tax non-compliance is a $100 million project for the infotech arm of engineering giant Larsen & Toubro, according to a company official.

Since the note ban last November, the government has been putting in lots of efforts to plug the loopholes in the taxation system using advanced technology and the attempt got an added focus since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in June had admitted that as much 99% of the banned banknotes had returned to the system, negating the stated intent of cancelling 87% of the notes in circulation.

“That is really advanced analytics. Now, that is like a $100-million deal for us. It’s not a small deal,” L&T Infotech chief executive and managing director Sanjay Jalona told PTI.

Terming the work awarded by the Central Board of Direct Taxes as a “high volume digital deal”, he elaborated that the project involves creating a ‘semantic web’ where web pages are structured and tagged in such a way that can be directly read by the computers. “We are creating a systematic web on a person. If his wife is going to the Seychelles and putting photos on Instagram, we will capture it ... that is really advanced analytics,” Jalona said.

1% Incentive scheme : Laptop, mobile and many more ?

CBDT asked proposal for 1% incentive scheme to utilize Rs 615 crores to improve efficiency and capabilities of Officers and Officials of Income Tax Dept.
Set up of resource centre, Laptop for ITO onwards/AO/PS/Inspectors, Mobile phones, AC in office, are under active consideration and under process which amounts to Rs 264 Crores.
New schemes and proposals invited from Pr CCIT/CCIT/Pr DGIT/DGIT has been sought for utilization of the remaining amount.
Click here for details

Draft all India seniority list of ITOs published

As per N R Parmar judgement, CBDT published draft seniority list of ITOs from vacancy year 2006-07 to 2012-13.
All Pr CCITs have to publish it in the noticeboard for all concerned. Any objection may be forwarded to respective Pr CCIT for suitable action.
Click here for the letter

Click here for the Draft Seniority List

End Training Exam for ITOs : Different CAT stays Exam, JCA to boycott

After Chandigarh, Allahabad and Mumbai, CAT Kolkata Bench has also stayed the proposed exam for newly promoted ITOs after training. 
Click here for the Kolkata CAT order 
All India JCA in the meantime wrote a letter to Chairman CBDT to withdraw the instruction . 
"..e Central JCA has given a call to its members all over the Country, who are/ will be participating in the Orientation Course for the newly promoted ITOs, not to appear in the said examinations at the end of the Course till the Instruction dated 28‐02‐2017 is withdrawn. We would therefore like to request your honour once again to kindly withdraw the Instruction dated 28‐02‐2017 immediately."
Click here for the JCA letter
It may be mentioned that DTRTI Kolkata proposed to conduct the exam on 31st July 2017 and the CAT order is a timely intervention at the crucial juncture.

ITBA training for officers and staff of the department

Department is going to conduct ITBA training for all officers and staff of the department for Tax Assistants and onward under the "Project Prashikshan".
Officers/staff will be imparted a 2-day training on HRMS/ITBA modules at different training centres spread across 40 locations in the country.
Training will be imparted at TCS facilities in Tata-ION centres in batches of 100. ii. To meet different training needs for different levels of officers/staffs batches are grouped into three categories viz. (a) employees upto ITI, (b) all AOs and equivalent (ITO through DCIT) and (c) Supervisory Officers from JCIT and above.
Project Prashikshan has been divided into four phases: a. Train the Trainer Program- In this phase around 100-150 Departmental employees out of those from NADT/RTI/MSTU/EDP will be trained at New Delhi on 24th, 25st and 26nd July, 2017.
 b. Pilot training for employees : To be conducted at Delhi 27th and 28th July to fine tune the training methodology
 c. Training program at 9 big locations-: During this phase major centres like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Chandigarh will be covered starting from 31st July 2017.
 d. Training at the remaining 31 centres will be carried out- This phase will commence in August and will continue in parallel with the training program at 9 big locations mentioned above. 
Click here for details