Budget 2020-21 + FINANCE BILL, 2020

Providing check on survey operations under section 133A of the Act.

Under the existing provisions of section 133A of the Act, an income-tax authority as defined therein is empowered to conduct survey at the business premises of the assessee under his jurisdiction. To prevent the possible misuse of such powers, vide Finance Act 2003, a proviso to sub-section (6) in the said section was inserted to provide that no income-tax authority below the rank of Joint Director or Joint Commissioner, shall conduct any survey under the said section without prior approval of the Joint Director or the Joint Commissioner, as the case may be.

It is proposed to substitute the proviso to sub-section (6) of section 133A to provide that,-

(A) in a case where the information has been received from the prescribed authority, no income-tax authority below the rank of Joint Director or Joint Commissioner, shall conduct any survey under the said section without prior approval of the Joint Director or the Joint Commissioner, as the case may be; and

(B) in any other case, no income-tax authority below the rank of Commissioner or Director, shall conduct any survey under the said section without prior approval of the Commissioner or the Director, as the case may be.

This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2020.

[Clause 65]

 

 

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Budget 2020-21 + FINANCE BILL, 2020

Survey approval requirements: amended hierarchy now mandates higher-level approval before conducting surveys under section 133A. Amendment introduces a tiered prior-approval regime for exercise of survey powers: where information is received from a prescribed authority, lower-ranked officers require prior approval from the intermediate supervisory tier; in other cases, officers below the senior administrative tier require prior approval from that senior tier. The change raises the approval threshold in non-prescribed-authority cases and takes effect from the stated effective date.