Allotment of Document Identification Number
What I liked best in the Budget is the proposed new Section 282B of the Income Tax Act.
The Section reads as,
(1) Every income-tax authority shall allot a computer generated Document Identification Number in respect of every notice, order, letter or any correspondence issued by him to any other income-tax authority or assessee or any other person and such number shall be quoted thereon.
(2) Where the notice, order, letter or any correspondence, issued by any income-tax authority, does not bear a Document Identification Number referred to in sub-section (1), such notice, order, letter or any correspondence shall be treated as invalid and shall be deemed never to have been issued.
(3) Every document, letter or any correspondence, received by an income-tax authority or on behalf of such authority, shall be accepted only after allotting and quoting of a computer generated Document Identification Number.
(4) Where the document, letter or any correspondence received by any income-tax authority or on behalf of such authority does not bear the Document Identification Number referred to in subsection (3), such document, letter or any correspondence shall be treated as invalid and shall be deemed never to have been received.”
This is all about accountability of documents. Now every letter from the Income Tax Department will bear a computer generated identification number – so the existence of the letter cannot be denied or wished away and it should be easy to track it. Similarly the receipt of a letter by the Income Tax Officers will also be allotted a computer generated Document Identification Number.
The entire office administration will automatically improve if you have control over the inward and outward correspondence. And the government seems to be serious – that's why they have inserted these provisions in the Act – instead of issuing circulars which are anyway going to be flouted with impunity.
But why is it that no such provision is introduced in the Customs or Central Excise Acts?