Income Tax Ombudsman
The Income Tax department proposes to appoint ombudsmen in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Kochi. These ombudsmen will be in the pay scale of Board Member and will be selected from the Chief Commissioners or similarly ranked officers. He has to be a serving officer and is eligible to continue till he reaches the age of 63 or for two years (extendable by one year) as ombudsman. Immediate benefit is 12 more Chief Commissioners are going to get Member level posts.
What is the Ombudsman supposed to do?
(a) receive complaints from taxpayers;
(b) consider such complaints and facilitate their satisfaction or settlement by agreement, through conciliation and mediation between the Income Tax Department and the aggrieved parties or by passing an ‘award’ .
(c) require the Income Tax Authority complained against or any other related Income Tax Authority to provide any information or furnish certified copies of any document relating to the subject matter of the complaint which is or is alleged to be in its possession; provided that in the event of failure of such authority to comply with the requisition without any sufficient cause, the Ombudsman may, if he deems fit, draw the inference that the information, if provided or copies if furnished, would be unfavourable to the concerned Income Tax Authority;
(d) suggest remedial measures for redressal of grievances
(e) report his findings to the Secretary, Department of Revenue, GOI and the Chairman CBDT for appropriate action against erring officials;
His duties:
(a) to exercise general powers of superintendence and control over his office and be responsible for the conduct of business in his office;
(b) to maintain confidentiality of any information or document coming into his knowledge or possession in the course of discharging his duties and not disclose such information or document to any person except with the consent of the person furnishing such information or document;
(c) to protect individual taxpayer’s rights and reduce taxpayers’ burden;
(d) to identify issues that increase the compliance burden or create problems for taxpayers, and to bring those issues to the attention of the CBDT and the Ministry of Finance;
(e) to send a monthly report to the Chairman CBDT and Secretary, Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance recommending appropriate action. The report shall specially highlight cases where action needs to be taken against erring Income Tax authorities for their failure to redress the grievance. The report will be accompanied with primary evidence needed to initiate action against the delinquent persons;
(f) to furnish a report every year containing a general review of activities of the office of the Ombudsman during the preceding financial year to the Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance and the Chairman, CBDT along with such other information as may be considered necessary by him. In the annual report, the Ombudsman, on the basis of grievances handled by him, will review the quality of the working of the Income-tax Department and make recommendations to improve the tax administration; and
(g) to compile a list of ‘awards’ passed by it between April and March of each financial year in respect of every Income Tax Authority Complained Against, by name, and report it to the controlling Chief Commissioners of the officers concerned and the Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes before the end of April so that this information can be reflected in the Annual Confidential Reports of the officers concerned.
What kind of complaints will the Ombudsman entertain?
(a) delay in issue of refunds beyond time limits prescribed by law or under the relevant instructions issued from time to time by the Central Board of Direct Taxes;
(b) sending of envelopes without refund vouchers in cases of refund;
(c) non adherence to the principle of ‘First Come First Served’ in sending refunds;
(d) non acknowledgement of letters or documents sent to the department;
(e) non up-dating of demand and other registers leading to harassment of assessees;
(f) lack of transparency in identifying cases for scrutiny and non communication of reasons for selecting the case for scrutiny;
(g) delay in disposing cases of interest waiver;
(h) delay in disposal of rectification applications;
(i) delay in giving effect to the appellate orders;
(j) delay in release of seized books of account and assets, after the proceedings under the Income-tax Act in respect of the years for which the books of account or other documents are relevant are completed;
(k) delay in allotment of permanent account number (PAN);
(l) non credit of tax paid, including tax deducted at source;
(m) non adherence to prescribed working hours by Income Tax officials;
(n) unwarranted rude behaviour of Income Tax officials with assessees;
(o) any other matter relating to violation of the administrative instructions and circulars issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes in relation to Income-tax administration.
Great Idea! Let us hope this will not be another compliance report. And will CBEC follow suit?