The Income Tax Ombudsman Guidelines 2006
Not happy with the working of the Income Tax department? Now there is an ombudsman to wipe your tears and maybe even grant a token compensation of one thousand rupees.
The CBDT has notified The Income Tax Ombudsman Guidelines 2006 with the objective of enabling the resolution of complaints relating to public grievances against the Income Tax Department and to facilitate the satisfaction or settlement of such complaints. The scheme is said to be in operation from 1.1.2006, but for some strange reason, the CBDT kept it a top secret all these days. It was only on 6-11-2006 that CBDT announced the scheme. (Please see TIOL-DDT 488 10 11 2006) and now the scheme is officially announced effective from 1.1.2006! Or did they mean 1.1.2007? It was only on 6th November 2006 that the JS in the Revenue department had called for nominations for the post of ombudsmen and the last date for submitting the nominations was 27.11.2006. Have they already made the appointments with effect from 1.1.2006?
The Ombudsmen will be located at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore>, Hyderabad>, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Kochi.
The ombudsman will have the powers to
(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’ in accordance with the Guidelines;
(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 mailer 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; and
(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; provided that nothing in this clause shall prevent the Ombudsman from disclosing information or documents furnished by a party in a complaint to the other party or parties, to the extent considered by him to be reasonably required to comply with the principles of natural justice and fair play in the proceedings;
(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.
A complaint can be made to the Ombudsman on
(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.
The problem is sorted out by a settlement between the parties and if no settlement is possible, the Ombudsman will grant an award
The ‘award’ passed shall be a speaking order consisting of the following components:
(a) Directions to the concerned Income Tax Authority such as performance of its obligations like expediting delayed matters, giving reasons for decisions and issuing apology to complainants etc., except a direction affecting the quantum of tax assessment or imposition of penalties under the Income Tax Act.
(b) A token compensation amount not exceeding Rs. 1000/- (Rs.One Thousand only) for the loss suffered by the complainant.
(c) Designation of the Income Tax officer to whom the letter of acceptance of the award is to be communicated