{"id":5681,"date":"2015-11-09T18:27:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T12:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itatonline.org\/info\/?p=5681"},"modified":"2015-11-09T18:27:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T12:57:44","slug":"no-more-tears-namo-promises-to-make-assessing-officers-accountable-for-bogus-additions-and-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/info\/no-more-tears-namo-promises-to-make-assessing-officers-accountable-for-bogus-additions-and-demands\/","title":{"rendered":"No More Tears! NAMO Promises To Make Assessing Officers Accountable For Bogus Additions And Demands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NAMO\"<\/p>\n

It is common experience that Assessing Officers have the tendency to make huge additions and disallowances on frivolous grounds and raise huge tax demands. Coercive measures are adopted to recover the said demands. This causes immense hardship to honest taxpayers. <\/p>\n

There are two reasons for the modus operandi of the Assessing Officers. The first is that the CBDT has\/ had a policy of rewarding officers with plum postings and promotions based on the tax collected by them (see Collect Taxes; Get Promotion & Choice Posting: CBDT Chief<\/a>). The second is that some unscrupulous officers get an excuse to demand bribes from the taxpayers (see Chief CIT Used Strong-Arm Techniques To Extort Bribe From Hapless Taxpayers: CBI Report<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Courts have passed repeated strictures to discourage the tendency to pass frivolous assessment orders. However, it has had no effect on the Assessing Officers. <\/p>\n

In UTI Mutual Fund vs. ITO<\/a> 345 ITR 71, the Bombay High Court deplored the tendency of the Assessing Officers to raise demands to meet budgetary requirements. “Administrative directions for fulfilling recovery targets for the collection of revenue should not be at the expense of foreclosing remedies which are available to assessees for challenging the correctness of a demand<\/em>” the Court said.<\/p>\n

In Bharti Airtel vs. ACIT<\/a> 161 TTJ 428, where a mammoth addition of Rs. 5,739 crore was made on a flippant basis, the Tribunal lamented that it could not remain a “helpless spectator<\/em>” and that for such a “frivolous addition, someone should be accountable for the resultant undue hardship to the taxpayer<\/em>“. <\/p>\n

In Pr CIT vs. Samcor Glass Ltd<\/a> the Delhi High Court gave the department an ultimatum and directed that specific guidelines be laid down to prevent abuse of reopening power by the Assessing Officers. <\/p>\n

Fortunately, the cries of the taxpayers have been heard by the Hon\u2019ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his latest speech, the Prime Minister has promised that Assessing Officers will be held accountable for the orders that they pass. He stated: <\/p>\n