TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
Revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for management of Tax Evasion Petitions under Income Tax Business Application (ITBA)
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....on)/ (I&CI) Madam/ Sir, Sub : Revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for management of Tax Evasion Petitions under Income Tax Business Application (ITBA) Ref : Guidelines issued vide Board's F. No. 414/60/97-IT (Inv.I) dated 21.2.2007 1. Reference is invited to the Board's earlier guidelines revising the procedure of handling and monitoring of Tax Evasion Petitions (TEPs). The same has been further reviewed and in order to streamline and expedite the disposal of TEPs and to improve the monitoring mechanism, a new standard operating procedure (SOP), is being specified herein, which shall come into force with effect from the date on which the TEP functionality on ITBA module goes live. Such date will be separately notified by the Directorate of Income Tax (Systems). Earlier guidelines issued vide Board's F. No. 414/60/97-IT (Inv.I) dated 21.2.2007 shall stand superseded w.e.f. the aforesaid notification by the Directorate of Income Tax (Systems). 2. Tax Evasion Petitions (TEPs) for the purpose of this (SOP), shall mean and include all complaints, information, representations or correspondence of any nature by letter in physical form or electronic form received from any sou....
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....fficer of CRU: 5.1 Within 30 days of receipt of the TEPs in CRU, the PDIT/DIT (Inv) shall categorize them on the basis of criteria indicated in the following table and further necessary action would be taken on the lines indicated therein: Category Criteria for categorization by PDIT (Inv.) Expected action A 1. TEPs for which report has been called for by the Board 2. TEPs received from VIPs or Members of Parliament (MPs), through CBDT or otherwise (List of VIPs as given in Appendix 48 of the Manual of Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure is enclosed, as Annexure-A); 3. Other TEPs considered important by DG IT(Inv)/PDIT(Inv) concerned for expeditious/ time-bound investigation 1. Category of TEPs in which report has been called by the Board shall not be altered without approval of the Board. 2. TEPs categorized as A shall be Investigation Directorate as per directions of the PDIT(Inv). B 1. TEPs containing specific, verifiable and actionable allegations against persons or entities located in Delhi (including National Capital Region), Mumbai (including Greater Mumbai Metropolitan region), Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad with expected concea....
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.... ITBA by the CRU and the hard copy of the TEP shall be retained in CRU itself for safe custody including for 'C' and 'D' categories of TEPs. 6.2 While uploading the TEP on ITBA, the following details shall be captured by the CRU on ITBA platform: i. UIN (generated by system) ii. Date of receipt of TEP in CRU. iii. Name of the complainant (Optional Field) * iv. Category of TEP (A/B/C/D), v. Agency from which complaint received (Board, VIP, Public/CBI/CVC/DRI/ED/REIC /FIU/CPGRAM/or other grievance/Anonymous/others) vi. PAN of Complainee(s)/Main Subject(s) vii. Name of Complainee (s)/Main Subject(s) viii. Address of the Complainee (s)/Main Subjects(s) ix. Business/occupation of the Complainee (s)/Main Subjects(s) x. Date of uploading of TEP by CRU (DD/MM/YYYY) xi. Gist of allegations xii. Unit/ AO to which disseminated. * where the complainant has specifically requested that his identity may not be disclosed, this field should not be filled. 7. Jurisdiction for conducting investigations into TEPs: 7.1 In cases where the jurisdiction of Investigation Units is territorial, the TEPs may be allocated to the Units as per the territorial jurisdiction, 7.2 Wher....
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.... DIT may call the complainant to furnish additional information, if required/feasible. 8.4 In cases earmarked for discreet enquiry, every effort should first be made to check the data/information available within the Department, including PAN, AST data, CIB data, and AIR data, ITD / ITDMS, to verify correctness of allegations made in the TEP. Physical records may be consulted wherever necessary, if the outcome of discreet enquiry does not indicate a fair possibility of detecting tax evasion, further enquiries may not be conducted and the TEP may be disposed of without undue delay. 8.5 In cases taken up for open enquiry, the relevant issues may first be verified from departmental records and/or databases, as far as possible. Efforts should also be made to gather necessary information about the issues under enquiry from all relevant sources other than the assessee, e.g. banks/ other agencies/creditors or debtors/ purchasers or sellers etc. For this purpose, section 133(6) may be used with approval of PDIT(Inv). 8.6 Open enquiry by issuing summons may be conducted only in cases where the allegations are specific and can be verified after calling/examining books/ documents and/ or r....
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.... Investigation Wing to AO to initiate the necessary action thereon. 10. Disposal of the TEP by Investigation Directorate 10.1 The TEP can be disposed of by way of closure or investigation report. In case of closure, the TEP should not be sent to the Assessing Officer. In case the investigation results in actionable issues, the Investigation Report on TEP should capture, inter alia, the following details: i. UIN ii. Date of Disposal-(1) By way of closure or (2) By way of Investigation Report iii. Whether TEP has resulted in Search or Survey action, if so date thereof iv. Names of person(s)/entity(ies) involved, their PAN, nature of business, sources of income, Gist of allegations, return status for the period involved in the allegations, status of assessment for the Assessment years involved in the allegations (section under which completed, date, whether the issue involved was examined in the assessment, if so what are the findings); Result of investigation w.r.t. allegations; concealment of income or other significant violations of the Income-tax Act detected; further actions recommended for the Assessing Officers, any other significant finding/action taken (such as fil....
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....ory 'C' TEPs: Based upon evaluation of the allegations, evidence available in such TEP, the AO may conduct enquiry for further necessary action, including remedial action u/s 148 as per outcome of such enquiry. 12.3 Disposal of the TEP by Assessing Officer: The TEP can be disposed of by way of closure or statutory action. He may close the TEP with the approval of the next higher authority. In case the enquiry results in actionable issues, the AO will take such actions as per provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 or Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income & Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act 2015, as the case may be. Outcome of disposal of TEP (Category A, B or C) should be captured by the AO clearly vis-a-vis each allegation. In case Investigation report of the Investigation Directorate has been received, the outcome should be mapped against each finding/ recommendation of the Investigation Directorate. As basic particulars about the TEP is already captured in the ITBA (such as UIN, category etc), the outcome may be captured in the following format: i. UIN ii. Date of Disposal by the AO-(1) By way of closure or (2) By way of Statutory Action iii. Names of person(s)/entity(i....