Print
PDF
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of
Direct Taxes
North Block, New
Delhi,
Instruction No.1/2015
Dated -13th January, 2015
Subject: – Clarification regarding applicability of section
143(1D) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 -reg.
Sub-section (ID) of section 143 of the Income-tax Act, 1961
(‘Act’) provides that where a notice has been issued to a taxpayer under
sub-section (2) of section 143 of the Act, it shall not be necessary to process
the return in such a case.
2. Some doubts
have been expressed, in view of the words “shall not be necessary” used
in the said sub-section, as to whether this provision permits processing of
returns having a refund claim, where notice under section 143(2) of the
Act has been issued.
3.
The matter has been examined by the Board. Sub-section (1D) of section
143 of the Act was introduced by the Finance Act, 2012 with effect from
01.07.2012. The purpose of introduction of this sub-section has been stated in
the Explantory Note to the Finance Act as under: “Under the existing
provisions, every return of income is to be processed under sub-section (1) of
section 143 and refund, if any, due is to be issued to the taxpayer. Some
returns of income are also selected for scrutiny which may lead to
raising a demand for taxes although refunds may have been
issued earlier at the time of processing. It is therefore proposed to amend the
provisions of the Income-tax Act to provide that processing of return will not
be necessary in a case where notice under sub-section (2) of section 143 has
been issued for scrutiny of the return.” Thus, in cases where an unprocessed
return is selected for scrutiny, the legislative intent is to prevent the issue
of refund after processing as scrutiny proceedings may result in demand for
taxes on finalisation of the assessment subsequently.
4. Considering the unambiguous language of the relevant
provision and the intention of law as discussed above, the Central Board of
Direct Taxes, in exercise of the powers conferred on it under section 119
of the Act hereby clarifies that the processing of a return cannot be
undertaken after notice has been issued under sub-section (2 ) of section 143
of the Act. It shall however, be desirable that scrutiny assessments in such
cases are completed expeditiously.
5. This may be brought to the notice
of all concerned for strict Compliance.
6. Hindi version to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment