Stay of tax demand: appeals must be taken up promptly and adjournments limited unless minimum payment required.
Where an ITO grants a stay of tax demand until disposal of the relevant AAC appeal, the ITO must include a stipulation requesting the AAC to take the appeal out of turn and notify the AAC that adjournments should generally be refused unless the assessee makes a prescribed minimum payment of the held-up demand. While returning Form I.T.N.S.51 the ITO must reference the stay order, verify particulars, and request to be heard by the AAC before any adjournment without the minimum payment; AACs must promptly forward the form and ITOs must return it filled without delay.

Valuation referral criteria: specified immovable-property valuation discrepancies must be sent to a Valuation Cell for independent assessment.
Instructions require referral to the Valuation Cell of immovable-property cases including suspected incorrect valuations under prosecution consideration, income-tax cases with suspected understatement above a monetary threshold, and estate-duty/wealth-tax/gift-tax matters where declared values or rented-property valuations fall below prescribed multiples or monetary floors; departmental estimates and assessees' valuer reports must accompany referrals, the rental multiplier is a case-selection aid not a valuation norm, and guidance on income-capitalisation and land-and-buildings methods is provided.

Tax recoverability: publication of write off lists signals inability to realise tax from known assets but liability persists.
Publication of lists of taxpayers whose tax has been written off is to proceed with a prescribed Note clarifying that such write off means, in the Department's opinion at publication, the tax cannot be realised from the known assets of the assessee, but does not render the amount irrecoverable in law or discharge the assessee's liability. Commissioners/Additional Commissioners must publish lists from the designated year, meet specified publication deadlines, forward copies to D.I.(R.S.& P) for monitoring, and the D.I.(R.S.& P) must send copies to the Board.

Interest charging obligations require full interest be levied unless statutory waiver applies; any waiver must be recorded in assessment orders.
Full interest must be charged where statutory provisions make interest payable for delayed returns, insufficient advance-tax, failure to furnish prescribed estimates, or non-payment of tax demand, and any waiver or reduction is permissible only under the specified rules or provisos and must be recorded in the main body of the assessment order to show the omission was intentional and authorised.

Service of Tax Demand Notices: directives require prompt issuance and supervisory review to prevent abnormal delays.
The Board directs strict control to prevent abnormal delays in the service of demand notices issued under Section 220(1). A study found frequent late service of notices, and the Board requires assessing officers to personally monitor service, IAC review of unexplained delays, expedited handling of major cases, and random supervisory checks to ensure compliance, warning that serious administrative action will follow persistent delays.

Equal scrutiny of public sector tax assessments required; authorities must examine returns and claims impartially.
Income-tax authorities are directed to examine returns and claims for deductions and allowances of public sector undertakings with the same impartiality and rigour as applied to other assessees of comparable turnover or income, to dispel any appearance of discrimination, and officers assessing such cases must be informed of this instruction.

Valuation of partnership interest requires strict adherence to net wealth rules and exclusion of reserves, with enforcement against noncompliance.
Valuation of a partner's interest must be based on the firm's net wealth on the valuation date, determined under the prescribed valuation rules; market value should be adopted where it exceeds book value beyond the permitted threshold. Reserves of all kinds are excluded from liabilities for this computation, so reserves such as the Development Rebate Reserve cannot be allowed as deductible liabilities. Assessing officers' defaults in applying these rules should be examined and appropriate action taken to ensure compliance.

Waiver of time limit for cancelling protective assessments allows officers to correct redundant assessments on merits.
The Board authorises Income-tax Officers to cancel redundant protective assessments-either suo motu or on application-by treating them as mistakes apparent from record or by admitting and disposing of rectification applications, and, where necessary, to waive the statutory time limit for such action; each relaxation of the time limit must be reported to the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner within one month.

Tax Recovery Commissioner role expands to include recovery, appeals and write-off supervision, requiring liaison with state authorities.
Five new Tax Recovery Commissioners were sanctioned and notified while corresponding Additional Commissioner posts were abolished; Tax Recovery Commissioners will supervise recovery work, review arrear proformas, decide on stays of demand and withholding of refunds under section 241, and handle write-off of irrecoverable demands via departmental and Zonal Committees. They must also prepare to take over appellate work from State Government officials, establishing liaison to ensure smooth transfer.

Staff sanctioned for survey must be used only for survey duties; redeployments require immediate redirection and reporting.
Staff sanctioned specifically for survey work must be deployed exclusively on survey duties and must not be used for other purposes; where they are so employed elsewhere, they must be diverted back to survey tasks without delay and compliance with this exclusive deployment policy must be communicated to the Board.

Revenue audit objections: Board requests finalised disposals and accepted or rejected status for audit-detected tax mistakes.
The Board notes many audit objections shown as "under consideration" remain without reported final disposal, impairing its ability to state case positions; it therefore requires commissioners to provide detailed case-level information in a prescribed proforma showing whether each audit-detected under-charge or overcharge was settled, accepted, or not accepted, and to acknowledge receipt.

Internal audit scrutiny: ledger-based recording and explanation thresholds now govern officer mistakes and reporting procedures.
Commissioners must maintain ledger cards for each Income-tax Officer recording department-accepted mistakes with material tax effect; cards transfer with the officer and inform character-roll considerations without unduly influencing overall annual assessment. Explanations are mandatory for cases appearing as draft paragraphs from external audit and otherwise at Commissioners' discretion after assessing mistake circumstances; explanations must always be obtained where negligence, impropriety or doubt about bona fides exists. For draft-paragraph cases, explanations or their gists with Commissioner observations must be sent to the Board. Quarterly arrears statement requirements are cancelled due to the ledger system.

Custodian receipt of insurance tax refunds required after government takeover; refunds must be received by appointed custodians.
Refunds due to general insurance companies after government takeover are to be made to the insurer but received on its behalf by the custodian appointed under the General Insurance (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1971; the government's vesting of management includes the right to deal with property and institute legal proceedings, and the procedure applied in the case of nationalised banks is not applicable here.

Arithmetical accuracy in income computation: officers and staff must verify totals; transcription errors attract responsibility.
Income-tax Officers must verify the arithmetic accuracy of total income before signing assessment orders and, where totals exceed the prescribed threshold, record amounts in words and figures; clerks computing tax must use the Officer's determined total and Head Clerks/Supervisors must reconcile the total used for tax calculation with that shown in the assessment order. Errors in transcribing or using an incorrect total income are the responsibility of the concerned clerks, Head Clerks and Supervisors, and arithmetic mistakes detected later in specified cases will be treated as gross negligence by the Officer.

Penalty under section 18(1)(a) requirement enforced: wealth-tax officers must levy the penalty and risk disciplinary action for lapses.
The Board directs Wealth-tax Officers to impose the penalty u/s 18(1)(a) of the Wealth Tax Act wherever the provision applies, noting past failures to levy the penalty that caused revenue loss and adverse Revenue Audit comments; officers must ensure consistent application and face stringent disciplinary action for future lapses.

Benamidar rule: firms may refile partnership registration in amended forms and applications must be considered on merits.
Amendment treating partners as benamidars altered eligibility for partnership registration and amended Form Nos. 11, 11A and 12 to require a declaration; where old forms were filed for the assessment year 1971-72, officers must inform firms and allow one month to submit the amended form, and any such revised application must be disposed of on its merits. The same relief was extended to assessment year 1972-73 where amended forms were not available.

Income-tax verification certificate completeness required to prevent delays in allotment of registration and exemption numbers by licensing authorities
Instruction requires Income-tax Verification certificates to be fully and correctly completed: Income Tax Officers must verify applications before acceptance, fill all columns assigned to them, and affix signatures where necessary to prevent correspondence and delays in allotment of registration and exemption numbers by licensing authorities.

Separate accounting for wealth tax on agricultural land required; demands, challans and registers must distinguish agricultural and other assets.
Officials must maintain separate accounting for wealth tax demands and collections on agricultural land versus other assets. Existing forms are to be temporarily modified (separate challans, two-part Demand & Collection Register with cross references) pending revised prints. Collections in the DCR must indicate which part of the D & CR they relate to. For mixed-asset cases, the agricultural portion of the demand is allocated pro rata to the asset ratio, excluding additional wealth tax unless the agricultural land itself attracts that additional tax. Temporary hand inserted columns should record additional wealth tax until revised forms are issued.

Interest on delayed tax refunds requires prompt processing of appellate orders to prevent government liability for late payments.
Amendment shortened the interest free period for government liability on delayed refunds following appellate orders, requiring prompt processing to avoid interest. Senior tax officials must ensure receipt of fortnightly appellate order batches from AACs for timely refund processing, monitor delays, notify AACs of inordinate delays, take administrative notice if delays persist, and inform the board to prevent avoidable interest payments.

Summary assessment procedure clarified: exclusions, document requirements, and conditions for issuing notices and reopening assessments.
Guidance on the summary assessment procedure: officers may accept returns lacking enclosures only after issuing a printed notice requesting missing documents; bonafide changes in status need not exclude cases, but aggregated income beyond prescribed thresholds, significant capital asset sales, substantial perquisite valuation divergences, and specific allegations of cash credits or deposits in relatives' or nominees' names must be excluded. Transitional filing rules require supervisory approval for certain notices; reopening rights affect limitation periods, so summary assessments should be completed within the financial year of receipt or within one month for delayed returns. Administrative statistical and disposal targets are also prescribed.