Income Tax - AST - Functionality to pass Best Judgement order u/s 144 where no return of income was filed
AT present, the functionality to pass ex-parte order U/S 144A is available only in the cases in which return of income has been filed. A new functionality has been made available in AST wherein assessing officer can pass ex-parte order of assessment U/S 144 even though no return of income is filed in response to statutory notices issued U/S 142(1), 148, 153A or 153C.
The salient features of this functionality:
(i) The notice (148, 142(1), 153A, 153C) against which assessment proceeding is initiated should be present in the system.
(ii) Once assessment U/S 144 is initiated then earlier proceedings initiated for the year will be automatically 'Locked' and AD cannot proceed with the same.
(iii) Date of issue of notice U/S 142(1), 148, 153A or 153C through which proceedings have been initiated should be earlier than the date of issue of notice for assessment u/s 144.
(iv) Before passing the order U/S 144 if return for the year in which the assessment is in progress, is entered in the system then proceedings U/S 144 as per the present functionality will be automatically cancelled.
Through this functionality, the AD can pass ex-parte order U/S 144 through the System. If any manual notice has been issued, the same can be uploaded into the system before completing the assessment. The functionality also enables the AD to upload the already passed order into the System.
The Directorate of Income Tax (Systems) wants this information to be circulated among all the officers by the Commissioners and Chief Commissioners.
(AST): "Assessment Information System" - AST module is the core process of ITD applications conceptualized as an on-line, menu driven software capable of carrying out all assessment and related functions.
DIT (Systems) AST Instruction No. 124, Dated: March 24, 2014