CBDT asks its officials to set up local committees for grievances

THE SEN TIME by Manisha Sen New Delhi: To improve tax collection, the CBDT on Monday asked Principal Chief Commissioners of Income Tax to set up local committees to deal with grievances relating to taxpayers. "...the purpose of the constitution of local committee is to effectively and efficiently deal with genuine grievances of taxpayers and help in supporting an environment where assessment orders are passed in a fair and reasonable manner," the instruction issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said. The order has been issued to check the "tendency" of assessing officers to frame "high pitched and unreasonable assessment orders" resulting in harassment of taxpayers. Commenting on the instruction, Amit Maheshwari, Partner, Ashok Maheshwary & Associates said the CBDT has "accepted the ground reality" and this order will help the vision at the highest level of tax administration become a reality. CBDT observed that despite asking field authorities to be fair, objective and rational while framing scrutiny assessment orders, the tendency to unreasonable orders "is still persisting due to which grievances are being raised by the taxpayers. "Such grievances not only reflect harassment of taxpayers but also lead to generation of unproductive work for the department as well as Appellate Authorities". The local committees, the CBDT instruction said would aim to deal with the grievance petitions related to "high pitched" scrutiny assessments". "It shall be the endeavour of the local committee to dispose of each grievance petition within two months from the end of the month in which the grievance petition is received by it". The committee would consist of three senior members and would be set up various offices of the Chief Commissioners of Income Tax. PTI