Income Tax - Allotment of Document Identification Number - Further postponed
SECTION 282B (Allotment of Document Identification Number) is a new section inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2009 in the Income-tax Act with effect from 1st October, 2010.
Under this section, an income-tax authority is required to allot a computer generated Document Identification Number before issue of every notice, order, letter or any correspondence to any other income-tax authority or assessee or any other person and such number shall be quoted thereon. It also provides that every document, letter, 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.
Commenting on the 2009 Budget in DDT 1148 07.07.2009, it was said,
What I liked best in the Budget is the proposed new Section 282B of the Income Tax Act.
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?
Instead of making any such provision in Customs and Central Excise or Service Tax, the Finance Bill 2010, seeks to amend the provisions of Section 282B to stipulate that Document Identification Number will be required to be issued on or after 1st July, 2011.
The Income tax Department needs to be totally computerised to make this provision workable and their hopes of making it possible by October 2010 has failed is clearly indicated in the amendment in the Act to make the provisions applicable from July 2011. Will they be ready by then? If not, the Act can be again amended! Why put such provisions in the Act, when you cannot implement them?
Why was this provision introduced in the Statute?
Lofty ideals as can be seen from the explanatory memorandum to the 2009 Finance Bill. This is what they told parliament.
“It is now well accepted that “tax administration is tax policy”. A tax administration designed to foster voluntarily compliance yields higher revenue than a sound tax policy administered by an inefficient tax administration. Therefore, it has always been the endeavour of the Income-tax Department to improve the standards of its service and transparency in its functioning. Therefore, it is proposed to introduce a computer based system of allotment and quoting of Document Identification Number (DIN) in each correspondence sent or received by it so as to enable tracking of documents and minimize taxpayers grievances.”
People who write the policy unfortunately do not know the field realities.
Why is CBEC not even thinking on these lines?
When this kind of amendment is made in the Income Tax Act, doesn't the Revenue Secretary or the Finance Minister ask why similar amendments are not made in Customs Act and Central Excise Act?