Valuer compliance with prescribed valuation rules required; failure treated as professional misconduct with risk of removal.
Registered valuers must submit valuation reports in the prescribed form and supply all required information and supporting documents; strict compliance with the valuation rules is required and non compliance will be treated as professional misconduct potentially leading to removal from the register of valuers.

Rectification applications under section 154 require prompt processing to ensure tax/refund adjustments and prevent erroneous recovery actions.
Rectification applications under section 154 requiring adjustment of prepaid taxes or refunds must be attended to promptly to avoid inflated demands and erroneous recovery certificates; such matters should ordinarily be resolved within one month and not remain pending beyond three months, and inspecting authorities must emphasise timely handling and take action for failures.

Unilateral relief: compute foreign tax rate in foreign currency and allow relief at the lower comparative rate.
Unilateral relief for doubly taxed income is determined by computing the foreign tax rate in the foreign currency-tax paid in the foreign country divided by the whole amount of income assessed there-and comparing that rate with the Indian rate, allowing relief at the lower rate; conversion of income and tax into Indian rupees for this purpose is not permissible because exchange rate fluctuations may distort the foreign tax rate.

Unilateral relief for double taxation requires computing foreign tax as a percentage in foreign currency and applying the lower rate.
Unilateral relief under Section 91 is to be allowed at the lower of the Indian tax rate or the rate of tax in the foreign country, with the foreign rate computed by expressing both the income assessed abroad and the tax paid there in the foreign currency and calculating tax as a percentage of that income; conversion into Indian rupees for rate computation is not permitted because exchange rate fluctuations can distort the correct foreign-country tax rate.

Conveyance allowance exemption affirmed; no separate certificate or strict verification required for judges' allowance.
Conveyance allowance of Rs.300 per month for High Court Judges is to be regarded as a tax-exempt conveyance allowance; Income-tax Officers are not required to make detailed enquiries to verify that conveyance expenses equal the allowance, and judges need not furnish a separate certificate that the allowance reimburses expenses wholly, necessarily and exclusively incurred in performance of duties. Circular No.196 is modified to this effect.

Withholding publication pending appeals: names of taxpayers withheld from penalty lists until disposal of specified revision or settlement applications.
Where an assessee files a revision petition to the Commissioner, an application to the Commissioner under remedial provisions, or an application to the Settlement Commission for cancellation or waiver of penalties, the assessee's name shall be withheld from publication in the annual penalty lists provided the petition or application is pending at the end of the financial year to which the list relates. Publication duties, deadlines, notice board placement, transmission to the publicity unit, and exclusions for certain financial corporations are prescribed.

Publication of tax defaulters' names with revised thresholds and stricter inclusion criteria for pending proceedings and recoverability.
Revised monetary thresholds and a single-part consolidated publication are mandated for publishing names of tax defaulters under section 287; lists must contain defaulters with tax outstanding for two years or more and be published in the Gazette, specified newspapers and office notice boards. Names are to be included only after disposal of revision petitions, specified remedial applications, or appellate orders given effect to; amounts covered by stay orders, appellate refunds, or advance tax awaiting adjustment are excluded from default calculations. A short post-appellate payment period allows deletion if dues are cleared before press submission.

Income-tax rate and surcharge changes: revised withholding, exemptions, capital gains and appellate structure follow the Act.
The Finance (No. 2) Act, 1977 revises income tax and withholding rate schedules, raises the personal exemption threshold and surcharge for non corporate taxpayers, standardises advance tax limits for non company assessees, and prescribes specific source deduction rates for categories such as royalties, interest, dividends and lottery winnings. It shortens the holding period for short term capital assets, advances the base date for historical valuation for capital gains, inserts exemptions for reinvested long term gains in specified assets, expands investment allowance (including a higher rate for certain technology based production), introduces deductions for approved rural development and small rural undertakings, and creates Commissioner (Appeals) as a new appellate authority across direct tax enactments.

Applications under section 132(11) must be tracked in a prescribed register and disposed within six months to ensure timely processing.
The Board directs Commissioners to maintain the register prescribed by Instruction No.1084 to monitor progress of applications filed under the search-and-seizure provision and to ensure all such applications are disposed of within six months of filing, addressing delays and taxpayer uncertainty.

Commissioners' powers under section 132(11) require expeditious disposal and maintenance of a monthly pendency register.
Commissioners of Income-tax are empowered under section 132(11) to decide applications against orders made under the search and seizure provisions, subject to giving applicants an opportunity of being heard, and must maintain a monthly register recording opening pendency, receipts, disposals and closing pendency with specified ageing bands for reporting purposes.

Wilful attempt to evade tax, penalty or interest triggers prosecution and requires prior administrative approval.
Section 276C(2) of the Income-tax Act makes a wilful attempt to evade payment of any tax, penalty or interest a prosecutable offence. The Explanation defines such attempts to include: possession or control of relevant books or documents containing false entries or statements; making false entries or statements; wilful omission of relevant entries or statements; and causing other circumstances to enable evasion. Prosecutions require prior administrative approval and officials are directed to scrutinise and propose prosecution where recovery has been deliberately thwarted.

Continuation of registration requires ascertainable allocation of partners' losses; otherwise fresh partnership deed and re-registration required.
Continuation of registration when a minor attains majority is allowable only if the original partnership deed enables ascertainment of partners' shares in losses so there is no change in the partners' shares; absent such specification a fresh partnership deed must be executed and a fresh application for registration filed.

Capital gains exemption under section 54 limited to individuals; Hindu Undivided Families are not eligible for the relief.
The instruction clarifies that the capital gains exemption for transfer of a residential house under section 54 is limited to the individual assessee who personally used the property for residence and satisfied the statutory purchase or construction time limits; the phrase referring to use "by the assessee or a parent of his family for purpose of his or the parents' own residence" cannot be read to extend the relief to Hindu Undivided Families.

Panel of Chartered Accountants for special audit: commissioners to empanel experienced, integrity qualified practitioners under section 142(2A).
Commissioners are empowered to draw panels of Chartered Accountants for special audit under section 142(2A), deciding panel size by local conditions and using a common panel for multicommissioner charges. Guideline criteria recommend auditors with at least ten years' practice, sufficient experience in income tax matters, outstanding integrity and willingness to serve; a professional income threshold is suggested. Audit fees are to be determined according to case facts and local conditions.

Provisional assessment: require prompt provisional assessments and refunds; withholdments only after senior approval.
Provisional assessments under Section 141A should be made and refunds granted promptly where requested or where returned income and pre-assessment tax indicate a refund and regular assessment is unlikely within six months. Large provisional refunds may be withheld only with prior Commissioner approval under Section 241. All cases under Section 141A and applications or returns exceeding the specified threshold must be entered in a dedicated register kept in the ITO's personal custody and reviewed periodically to ensure timely provisional assessments and refunds.

Intelligence gathering: proactive, coordinated detection of large-scale tax concealment to support assessment and prosecution efforts.
The Instruction requires the Intelligence Wing to take a proactive role in gathering information on tax evasion through suo motu enquiries, departmental leads, informants, press reports and interagency liaison; to conduct preliminary enquiries where large concealment is indicated and send comprehensive investigative notes to assessing officers with supervisory endorsements; to associate with post-search investigations to ensure seized assets and evidence are considered; to maintain dossiers and industry files; and to focus on processing substantial concealment cases for prosecution while assisting in evidence-gathering and trial monitoring.

Opportunity of hearing before objection to settlement application: commissioners should hear applicants, record reasons, and may withhold reasons.
Commissioners should offer applicants an opportunity of hearing before objecting to admission of a settlement application where concealment or fraud is alleged; after hearing the commissioner may still object but must record reasons, need not communicate those reasons to the applicant, and may inform the settlement authority that the applicant was heard yet the commissioner remains unsatisfied. The same procedure applies to analogous wealth-tax applications.

Reporting threshold raised: statements for specified payments now required only above the revised monetary limit in returns.
The Board has directed that, pending amendment of return Forms Nos. 1, 2 and 3A, compliance with the Annexure requirements under the statutory provision will be satisfied if assessees furnish statements only for payments of rent, interest, commission, royalty, brokerage and certain annuities exceeding Rs.1,000, thereby temporarily raising the prior Rs.400 reporting threshold and instructing officers to give effect to this change.

Requirement to furnish payment statements raised to a higher threshold; compliance permitted pending amendment under income tax rules.
The Board has directed that, pending amendment of return Forms, compliance with Annexures requiring attachment of statements of payments (rent, interest, commission, royalty, brokerage or annuity) will be satisfied if assessees furnish such statements only where payments exceed Rs. 1,000, and officers are to be informed of this administrative relaxation under the income-tax rules.

Tax deduction on government securities: draft withholding rates and surcharge to apply to interest payments after the specified change.
Draft instructions transmit proposed rates for income tax and surcharge to be deducted from interest on Government securities under the tax deduction provisions; Accountants General are directed to issue the draft circular immediately to Treasury and Sub Treasury Officers so deductions are applied at the prescribed rates on subsequent interest payments.