The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued the instructions regarding uploading information on Verification Report Upload (VRU) functionality on Insight portal for implementation of risk management strategy for issuance of notice.
As per the amended provisions of section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961(‘the Act’), the information which has escaped assessment has been defined to include the two categories of information, i.e., (i) the information which is flagged in accordance with the risk management strategy formulated by the Board; and (ii) final audit objection raised by the C&AG.
For effective implementation of risk management strategy, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (Board), in exercise of its powers under section 119 of the Act, directed that the Assessing Officers shall identify the following categories of information pertaining to Assessment Year 2015-16 and Assessment Year 2018-19, which may require action under section 148 of the Act, for uploading on the VRU functionality on Insight portal (i) Information from any other Government Agency/Law Enforcement Agency (ii) Information arising out of Internal Audit objection, which requires action u/s 148 of the Act (iii) Information received from any Income-tax Authority including the assessing officer himself or herself, (iv) Information arising out of search or survey action (v) Information arising out of FT&TR references, vi) Information arising out of any order of court, appellate order, order of NCLT and/or order u/s 263/264 of the Act, having impact on income in the assessee’s case or in the case of any other assessee, (vii) Cases involving addition in any assessment year on a recurring issue of law or fact. As per the provisions of section 149(1)(b) of the Act, in specific cases where the Assessing Officer has in his possession evidence that reveal that the income escaping assessment, represented in the form of asset, amounts to or is likely to amount to fifty lakh rupees or
more, notice can be issued beyond the period of three years but not beyond the period of ten years from the end of the relevant assessment year. Further, the notice under section 148 of the Act cannot be issued at any time in a case for the relevant assessment year beginning on or before 1st day of April, 2021, if such notice could not have been issued that time on account of being beyond the time limit prescribed under the provisions of clause (b), as they stood immediately before the proposed amendment. As per the explanation provided to section 149 of the Act, the term “asset” shall include immovable property, being land or building or both, shares and securities, loans and advances, deposits in a bank account.
In view of the above, it is directed that the information pertaining to Assessment Year 2015-16, which requires action u/s 148 of the Act shall be identified and uploaded on the VRU functionality on the insight portal only as per the provisions of section 149(1)(b) of the Act.
The exercise of identifying and uploading the information along with the underlying documents in the above categories of cases must be completed by 20.12.2021.
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