Independence of CIT(A)

[mohiticai]

The CIT (Appeal) reports to CCIT, who has revenue collection target. How can CIT(Appeal) be fair in his approach?

[srinivasan]

Dear Sir
We are in a country where CBI, is under Home ministry.... and nothing has been done to give it an independent status and take it out '

Recently there was a case where the person who pased the order , should not be the appellant authority. As long as CIT (Appeals ) are doing their job independent of the fact that they are part of the revenue and pass the order which is as per the provisions of the act, and as per the facts of the case , we should not have any objection.
regards
srinivasan

[mohiticai]

You r right that the CIT(A) passes the order under the provisions of Act and even he passes the order against the provisions of the Act , the same may be challenged with higher authorities. But the problem is that in many sensitive cases with huge demand where the department case is weak CIT(A) under pressure, prefers not to take up the case and the file remains in the backlog. In such case the assessee has to face harassment as his money by way of unwarranted taxes gets blocked with the department and further he has to get his books scrutinized every year under compulsory scrutiny being his high demand case pending in scrutiny. And every year the unwarranted addition based on the pending matter with CIT(A) is made ........     

[vsaiyar]

The CIT(A) should not be under the administrative authority of the Commissioners of Income-tax or for that matter under the CBDT.  There should be a separate cadre for the appellate authorities with options for promotions.  The promotions could be through the Department of Legal Affairs.  They could come from the Department of Legal affairs instead of Nagpur trained officers.  I would suggest that the designations of the CIT(A) should also be changed so as to erase the impression that they are not in the category of administrative commissioners