Shri. Atulesh Jindal, the Chairperson of the CBDT, has addressed a letter dated 05.02.2016 to the Principal Chief Commissioners of Income-tax in which he has stated that the growth in collection of direct tax collections is not encouraging. He has pointed out that main cause for concern is that regular tax collection has shown a decline of 10.44% as compared to a growth of 17.25% last year. He has stated that this suggests inter alia that adequate efforts are not being made to collect the arrear demand. The CBDT Chief has directed that “outmost focus for the next two months should be on collection of the collectible demand, both out if current and arrear demand”. The Chairperson has also directed the Principal Commissioners to give the highest priority to the work of collection of demand and to monitor it personally

The CBDT has issued TDS instruction No. 51 dated 04.02.2016 in which important directions have been given with regard to the functionality for issue of online TDS certificates u/s 195(2) and 195(3) for lower/ no-deduction of tax at source

The CBDT has issued an Office Memorandum dated 29.01.2016 to deal with the issue as to whether a refund due to the assessee can be adjusted against a demand due from him u/s 245 of the Act. The CBDT has inter alia stated that in cases where the tax payer has contested the demand, CPC would issue a reminder to the jurisdictional Assessing Officers about the contention of the taxpayer, asking them to either confirm, or make appropriate changes, to the demand, within thirty days. In case no response is received from the jurisdictional Assessing Officer, within the stipulated period of thirty days, CPC would issue the refund without any adjustment. The responsibility of non-adjustment of refund against outstanding arrears, if any, would lie with the Assessing Officer

Shri. Atulesh Jindal, the Chairman of the CBDT has addressed a strongly worded letter dated 05.02.2016 to the Chief Commissioners and Directors Generals of Income-tax in which he has pulled up the department for unsatisfactory disposal of taxpayers’ grievances.

The CBDT Chief expressed dismay that repeated instructions from the CBDT had fallen on deaf ears. He stated that out of the total grievances of 7,863, 1696 grievances are pending for more than 6 months and 81 grievances are pending for more than a year. The learned Chairman reminded the department of the Citizens’ Charter which requires that all grievances should be disposed off within a period of two months.

The CBDT Chairman has directed the Chief Commissioners and Directors Generals to look into the matter personally and ensure that the grievances are disposed off on a priority basis. The Chairman has also directed that a ATR should be submitted to him in respect of grievances pending for more than six months

The CBDT has vide Orders Nos. 12 and 13 of 2016 dated 03.02.2016 ordered the transfers and postings of several officers in the grade of Commissioner and Director of Income-tax with immediate effect and until further orders

The CBDT has issued Notification No. 2 of 2016 dated 03.02.3016 in which the procedure, Formats and Standards for ensuring secured transmission of electronic communication have been specified in detail