INSTRUCTION NO. 01/2009, DATED 12-2-2009
The Board has considered the issues relating to the above and has decided that the information from the AIRs pertaining to financial year 2007-08 (Assessment year 2008-09) and subsequent years should be utilized in the manner laid down in paragraphs 2 to 8 below.
2 AIR information where PAN of the transacting party is available and return is filed:
(a) (a) The AIR data with PAN has been or shall be placed on the NCC by the DIT (Systems) and has been or shall be used under regular cycles of CASS as per CASS instructions issued by the Directorate of Income-tax (Systems).
(b) (b) Depending upon feedback on scrutiny assessment in a case for a particular assessment year, the Assessing Officers may resort to proceedings under section 148 for earlier assessment years in that case on the basis of AIR information available, if any, if they have reasons to believe that income has escaped assessment.
(c) (c) After issuance of notice under section. 143(2)/148, as the case may be, the Assessing Officers shall forward a list of such cases, along with value of criterion, to their Range Addl./Joint Commissioner for the purpose of monitoring.
3. AIR information with PAN where there is no information of returns filed:
(a) To identify the non-filers, CIT(CO)/CIT(in-charge) of each RCC/CC will run the application in the AIR module to generate the list of individual cases or persons who are non-filers and shall intimate the list of non-filers to the concerned Assessing Officers in respect of these cases.
(b) Further Action thereon: After identification of the non-filers, query letters (in the format as given in Annexure 5) shall be issued by jurisdictional Assessing Officers to all Non-Government transacting persons.
(i) if it is intimated by the tax payer that a return has already been filed before issue of the letter, the jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall immediately process the return on the system, if not processed so far, so that the same can be considered for scrutiny selection under CASS under a fresh cycle, which would be run by the Directorate of Income-tax (Systems).
(ii) If the letter is returned unserved, the case should be referred by the Assessing Officer to the DIT (CIB) of his Region with full details (including PAN, RRR No. and Line No. of the AIR transaction, name/address and TAN of the AIR filer etc.), and further action would be taken by the DIT (CIB) as indicated in paragraph 4(f) below.
(iii) If the assessee furnishes a return in response to the letter, the case should be compulsorily assessed under section 143(3)/144 after issue of notice under section 142(1)/143(2), as the case may be.
(iv) If the assessee does not furnish a return in response to the letter or does not respond to the served letter, the case should be assessed under section 143(3)/144/147 after issue of notice under section 142(1)/143(2)/ 148,, as the case may be.
(v) The jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall maintain a register of action taken on such AIR information in the format as per Annexure 4, which should be inspected every quarter by the Range head and the CIT concerned.
4. AIR information without PAN
(a) In respect.of the non-PAN cases, the data has been or shall be sent (by Directorate of Systems) in CDs to the 18 Cadre Controlling CCsIT (based on addresses of the transacting parties as given in the AIR) along with the party-wise details of transactions contained in the AIR and the information source.
(d) (d) The CCsIT shall sort and pass on the AIR information to the designated Assessing Officers (DAOs) [as notified by the Cadre Controlling CCsIT in terms of para 10(d) of the instruction No. 6 of 2006 ]. The DAOs shall issue query letters thereon (in the format as given in Annexure 5) to all Non-Govrnment transacting parties. If, on the basis of reply to the letter, it is found that the person is an existing assessee, the letter along with the reply/return and the AIR information should be transferred by the designated Assessing Officer to the jurisdictional Assessing Officer, who shall deal with these cases as follows:
(i) issue notice under section 142(1) to such assessee, if the assessee has not filed a return earlier for the relevant assessment year.
(ii) if return is filed in response to the query letter or in response to the notice issued under section 142(1), the jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall assess the case under section 143(3)/144.
(iii) if return was filed prior to issue of the query letter, the jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall manually apply such criteria (as per Annexure 1) to select such cases for scrutiny,
(iv) Where no return has been filed either prior to or after issue of query letter/notice under section 142(1) or where the time for issuance of notice under section 143(2) has expired, the jurisdictional Assessing Officer may consider issuance of notice under section 148 as per law, after recording reasons therefor, if he/she has reasons to believe that income has escaped assessment.
(c) Where the person is not an existing assessee (has never filed a return of income earlier) or does not respond to the served letter, the designated Assessing Officer shall assess the case under section 144/147/143(3), after issuance of notice under section 142(1)/ 148 /143(2), as the case may be, as per due process of law.
(d) The designated Assessing Officer and the jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall maintain a register of action taken on such AIR information in the format as per Annexure 4. which should be inspected every quarter by the Range head and the CIT concerned.
(e) After issuance of notice under section 143(2)/148, as the case may be, the Assessing Officers shall forward a list of such cases, along with value of criterion, to their Range Addl./Joint Commissioner for the purpose of monitoring.
(f) The designated Assessing Officers shall take all possible steps to locate and serve the query letter and subsequent notice, if required. In case the letter is returned unserved or if the assessee is not traceable at the address mentioned in the AIR, he shall send full details (including the RRR No. and Line No. of the AIR transaction, name and address of the AIR filer etc.) to the DIT (CIB) of his Region who shall contact the AIR - filer for getting the correct address of the assessee. The DIT (CIB) shall, after obtaining the correct address, intimate the same to the designated Assessing Officer for taking further action. In this regard, DIT (CIB) may also consider invoking the provisions of section 285BA(4) and section 271FA.
5. Updating PAN in non-PAN AIR information
On the basis of replies received from the transacting parties of the non-PAN AIR information, the designated Assessing Officer shall intimate PAN of concerned transacting parties, to DIT(CIB) of his region, who shall then update PAN in non-PAN AIR information through AIR module of ITD application.
6. Where time limit for issue of notice under section 143(2) is over
In a case of AIR information with or without PAN, where the time for issuance of notice under section 143(2) has expired, the jurisdictional or the designated Assessing Officers may consider issuance of notice under section 148 as per law, after recording reasons therefor, if they have reasons to believe that income has escaped assessment. However, the initiation of proceedings under section 148 should not be done in a routine manner, and should normally be resorted to only in cases where there is a sound basis for the same, and only after recording the reasons in an elaborate manner in each such case, mentioning the facts thereof, which should stand the test of law.
7. Monitoring
CCsIT shall closely monitor the progress of work and ensure security and confidentiality of the AIR information by following the need-to-know principle. The CsIT and Addl.CslT/JCsIT shall closely monitor the action taken on such information.
The jurisdictional Assessing Officer and the designated Assessing Officer shall maintain a register of action taken on AIR information in the format as per Annexure 4, which should be inspected every quarter by the Range head and the CIT concerned.
Summary of the actionable points is enclosed as Annexure 2. The flow chart is enclosed as Annexure 3.
8 Dissemination
This instruction should be immediately brought to the notice of all officers working in your Region for taking appropriate action.