Dissemination of information to media: centralised Media Center requires weekly electronic submission to the official spokesperson for release.
A Media Center in the Central Board of Direct Taxes is established to disseminate information of public value via the official Spokesperson. All information of public importance must be sent by e mail to the Spokesperson/Media Center by the weekly submission deadline; non compliance will be viewed seriously. The designated contact e mail address is supplied for mandatory submissions.

Deduction for converted interest allowed only on actual payment; apportionment required if interest is merged with principal.
Converted interest (including Funded Interest Term Loans) does not amount to actual payment by mere conversion; deduction under section 43B is admissible only in the previous year when such converted interest is actually paid. Waiver of interest is not deductible. If converted interest is merged with principal and repayments are indistinguishable, the interest component of any repayment must be apportioned and only that portion is deductible. Assessing Officers may require lender certification to verify actual payment.

Adjustment of seized cash disallowed against advance tax liability for the year in which a search occurred.
The Board decided that law does not permit application of seized cash against an assessee's advance tax liability for the year in which a search took place, and therefore such adjustment is not allowable.

New reporting system mandates streamlined monthly, fortnightly and annual reports on searches, seizures, surveys and illegal payments.
A new reporting system limits required submissions to: monthly D.O./activity reports to Member (Inv.) without search/survey statistics; monthly statistical reports by the 5th (Search and Seizure/Appraisal to Director(Inv. II & III); Survey and TEP to D.S.(Inv. I)); fortnightly reports on illegal payments within three days of each fortnight; and an annual S&S summary for Cabinet by 5 April. DGIT(Inv) and CCIT(Central) must submit outstanding reports called for in April 2006, deliver the quarterly report for quarter ending 30 06 2006 by 15 July 2006, and send copies on CD.

Extension of investment deadline for section 54EC relief permits taxpayers to invest delayed capital gains following bond non-availability.
Extension of the six-month investment period under section 54EC was ordered to address non-availability of notified capital gain bonds issued by NHAI and REC after an amendment limited eligible bonds to those issued on or after 1 April 2006; the Central Board of Direct Taxes, under section 119(2)(c), granted specified extended deadlines for taxpayers who transferred long-term capital assets during designated transfer periods to remove hardship caused by temporary non-availability of the bonds.

Duplicate TAN closure permitted where no pending returns or annual information returns exist, with verification and reporting measures.
Assessing officers may close duplicate TANs in the e-TDS application provided there is no return pending for processing under the duplicate TAN and no Annual Information Return has been filed under it. Closed TANs cannot be reactivated. Deductors may surrender TANs to NSDL; surrender requests are uploaded and must be verified, with requests rejected where surrendered details differ completely from existing TAN records. Affected officials must generate intimation reports and follow prescribed procedures to install the e-TDS software patch while suspending bulk uploads.

Waiver or reduction of interest: discretionary relief when return is filed and tax paid, subject to prescribed conditions.
The Order empowers the Chief Commissioner of Income-tax and the Director General of Income-tax to grant a waiver or reduction of interest under specified provisions where the assessee has filed the return for the relevant year and paid the entire income-tax, subject to conditions. Relief is available in cases of delay due to search and seizure, unforeseen non-capital income paid in later instalments, retrospective changes in taxability leading to advance-tax shortfall, and voluntary filing after unavoidable delay; waiver for late filing is confined to the search/seizure and voluntary-filing situations. Earlier related instructions are superseded and past petitions may be reconsidered.

TDS certificate issuance: consignee must promptly provide certificate to truck operators; failure attracts daily penalty.
In road transport cases where tax is deducted on payments to truck/goods carriage operators, the consignee must issue the TDS certificate within the prescribed time and in favour of the operator so that the operator can claim credit; failure to furnish the certificate timely or issuing it to any person other than the payee invokes a daily penalty under the relevant provisions.

Electronic Clearing Scheme refunds expanded to include corporation tax; system patch and centre-wide implementation required.
Enhancement expands the Electronic Clearing Scheme (ECS) to include refunds for Corporation Tax alongside Income-tax, and mandates technical implementation steps: two full backups, suspension of users and DBA jobs during installation, downloading and applying an OLTS patch that alters an index and updates executables, and copying/renaming executables on the file server. All computer centres and RCCs must implement the instruction and confirm compliance, with prior OLTAS instructions required to be in place before this enhancement is applied.

AO code population and duplicate refund deletion required; centres must apply the supplied patch and report compliance.
A patch addresses refunds posted under suspense and duplicate refund entries by providing Deletion of duplicate challan/refund and population of AO code on refund data. Centres must take two full backups, ensure no users are active, download and execute the patch from the specified server path, copy executables to the file server renaming or backing up same-named files, and report implementation by the stated deadline; prior OLTAS Instructions must already be implemented and routine 'Correction due to wrong BSR' runs should be performed.

Wealth tax scrutiny guidelines require examining income tax scrutiny files for undisclosed wealth and issuing appropriate notices.
The Board directs that Income Tax cases under current scrutiny be examined from a wealth tax perspective and, where appropriate, formal wealth tax notices under the relevant provisions be issued; senior reviewing authorities may, suo motu or on information from lower offices, direct the Assessing Officer to take up cases for wealth tax scrutiny to address non filing or under reporting.

Deduction under section 80HHC: duty drawback under updated Drawback Rules qualifies for deduction when statutory conditions met.
Deduction under section 80HHC includes export benefits such as duty drawback granted under the Customs and Central Excise Duties Drawback Rules, 1995 because Rule 18 of the 1995 Rules effects repeals and savings of the 1971 Rules and Section 8 of the General Clauses Act directs that references to repealed provisions be read as references to re-enacted provisions; deduction is allowed subject to satisfaction of other conditions and applies from assessment year 1996-97 onward.

STT scrutiny: all taxable securities transaction returns selected for detailed examination under applicable scrutiny provisions, feedback requested.
The Board directed that all returns filed in respect of taxable securities transactions for the initial return period be selected for detailed scrutiny under section 102 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004, following the first returns due under section 101(1); field formations are requested to send feedback to facilitate effective administration of STT.

Monitoring of scrutiny assessments: Range heads must supervise assessments under the statutory monitoring framework for administrative oversight.
Range Heads are required to supervise and monitor ongoing scrutiny assessments in accordance with the applicable statutory monitoring provision referenced in the Income Tax framework, superseding earlier internal instructions and to communicate this supervisory requirement to all concerned officers.

Review of release of seized assets requires departmental audits and staged reporting to identify and resolve unreleased property.
The Board directs a departmental review of seized assets remaining in custody and not released, requiring prescribed proforma data identifying seizure values and asset breakdowns, release dates or reasons for non-release, and staged submission of reports supervised by Chief Commissioners to the Board to enable appropriation and resolution of unreleased property.

Reporting requirements: standardized quarterly investigation and assessment reports plus historical data submission for parliamentary queries.
Standardized quarterly reports are mandated from DGsIT(Inv.) and CCsIT(Central): Investigation Quarterly Report I on search functions, seized asset appropriation/release and rewards, and Investigation Quarterly Report II on assessment functions related to search cases. These prescribed proformas must be submitted to the Board by the post quarter deadline, while monthly DOs and telex search reports continue. A one time submission of historical data in a specified Annexure format is required to build a central data bank for parliamentary and RTI requisitions, with provision for electronic copies.

Deduction under section 10A: STP unit approvals by Directors will not alone disqualify claims if other conditions met.
Section 10A grants a ten year deduction for profits of export oriented undertakings subject to commencement, formation and machinery use conditions. Where STP units were approved or registered by Directors of Software Technology Parks, such approval alone shall not defeat a claim under section 10A; the Inter Ministerial Standing Committee will review past Director approvals. Assessments denying section 10A solely for lack of Committee approval should have resulting demands kept in abeyance, and allowance of deduction must await verification that all other statutory conditions are met.

Produce of animal husbandry includes livestock and meat; cash payments to producers avoid disallowance under section 40A(3).
The Board clarifies that the produce of animal husbandry under rule 6DD(f)(ii) includes livestock, meat, hides and skins; payments otherwise than by crossed cheque or crossed bank draft made to the producer of such products for their purchase are not subject to the twenty percent disallowance under section 40A(3) read with rule 6DD, but the exception does not apply where the seller is not the producer and is merely a trader, broker or middleman.

Refund data correction: banks must update specified refund fields and install prescribed patches, then report implementation.
Banks may modify refund sequence number, Major Head code, PAN, name, amount and assessment year to correct OLTAS refund transmission errors; AO codes must be populated. Computer centres must take two full backups, download and execute prescribed FMX/REP files from the specified server directory with no users logged in, copy and rename/back up files on the file server, and ensure CIN is added to the ts_clean_challan query. A compliance report on implementation is required and prior OLTAS instructions must already be implemented.

Income tax rate and deduction framework revised, new 80C ceiling and dematerialised TDS/TCS operationalised for direct taxes and procedural TDS reforms.
The Act revises income tax rates, surcharge application and a two percent Education Cess, consolidates and caps certain savings deductions under a new deduction framework, withdraws selected standard salary and rebate benefits, restores and extends targeted exemptions and incentives, modifies depreciation and R&D weighted deductions, adjusts withholding rates for specified cross border payments, reforms TDS/TCS dematerialisation with transitional paper requirements, mandates quarterly electronic reporting for small interest payments with penalties for non compliance, rationalises assessment timelines in search and seizure cases, and increases securities transaction tax rates.