Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 14th August, 2019

PRESS RELEASE

CBDT takes further steps to ensure transparency in Tax Administration by bringing in concept of DIN

With a view to bringing greater transparency in the functioning of the tax-administration and improvement in service delivery, almost all notices and orders of Income Tax Department are being generated electronically on the Income Tax Business Application (ITBA) platform. However, it has been brought to the notice of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) that there have been some instances in which the notice, order, summons, letter and any correspondence (hereinafter referred to as “communication”) were found to have been issued manually, without maintaining a proper audit trail of such communication.

In order to prevent such instances and to maintain proper audit trail of all communication, the CBDT has, vide Circular No.19/2019 dated 14.08.2019 laid down parameters specifying the manner in which any communication issued by any income-tax authority relating to assessment, appeals, orders, statutory or otherwise, exemptions, enquiry, investigation, verification of information, penalty, prosecution, rectification, approval etc. to the assessee or any other person will be dealt with. All such communication issued on or after the 1st of October, 2019 shall carry a computer-generated Document Identification Number (DIN) duly quoted in the body of such communication.

CBDT has also specified exceptional circumstances where the communication may be issued manually but only after recording reasons in writing and with the prior written approval of the Chief Commissioner / Director General of Income-Tax concerned. In cases where manual communication is required to be issued, the reason for issue of manual communication without DIN has to be specified alongwith the date of obtaining written approval of the Chief Commissioner / Director General of Income-Tax in a particular format. Any communication which is not in conformity with the prescribed guidelines shall be treated as invalid and shall be deemed to have never been issued. Further, CBDT has also laid down the timelines and procedure by which such communication issued manually will have to be regularised and intimated to the Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems).

In addition to the above, in all pending assessment proceedings, where notices were issued manually, prior to issuance of the above referred Circular, all such cases would be identified and the notices so sent would be uploaded on ITBA by 31st October, 2019.

This is another step taken by CBDT towards better delivery of taxpayer services while ensuring accountability in official dealings.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT.

Document Identification Number introduced to validate tax communications; manual issuances require prior written approval and regularisation. The CBDT mandates a computer-generated Document Identification Number (DIN) on almost all income-tax communications issued on or after 1 October 2019 to ensure an auditable electronic trail; communications not conforming to DIN guidelines are invalid. Manual issuance is permitted only in exceptional circumstances with written reasons and prior written approval of the Chief Commissioner/Director General, recorded in a specified format, and CBDT prescribes timelines and procedures to regularise such communications and to upload previously manually issued notices to the ITBA by 31 October 2019.