Last year, the Income Tax Ombudsman Guidelines, 2006 was
promulgated and it came into force from 1st January, 2006. This very laudable
initiative, however, lost its momentum thereafter and it did not get
implemented soon. These guidelines provide us a ray of hope, a silver lining
out of the present gloomy scenario, so far as administration of the Income Tax
Department is concerned. It is a much awaited initiative to make the
administration comparatively more accountable and transparent.
"Comparatively," because these guidelines are not the ultimate or the final on
the war front of making the department fully transparent and accountable. It
cannot be regarded as a solution of all the woes of tax- payers as well as tax
practitioners. A major grievance is against arbitrary exercise of
quasi-judicial powers; mainly in the area of assessment, appeal, recovery,
etc. Many a times, such arbitrary exercises are too glaring and obvious.
Orders are passed which are, ex- facie, not tenable, on fact as well as in
law. In fact, many times, the assessees, or their representatives, are openly
told by the officers themselves that the assessee would definitely get relief
in appeal. Nonetheless, high pitched assessments are framed, exorbitant
demands are raised and coercive recovery proceedings are launched even while
the first appeal is pending adjudication. The Chamber, as well as many other
associations, has been repeatedly making representations before various fora
to have some sort of checks on such unbridled exercise of power. One of the
suggestions has been to bring in some sort of accountability on the officers.
Though full control, supervision or interference on exercise of quasi-judicial
power is neither feasible nor desirable, still, it is felt that some degree of
accountability and supervision, a sort of ‘quality audit’, will go in a long
way in not only improving quality of assessments, etc. but also in checking
arbitrariness in such actions. It will also improve the image of the
department as a whole, generating goodwill not only in the minds of tax-payers
but also of tax practitioners. Of course, this also will help in controlling
corruption, to an extent.
In the circumstances, it came as a pleasant surprise to
learn that the Income Tax Ombudsman Guidelines, 2006 has now gained momentum
with appointment of more than dozen Ombudsmen throughout the country. The joy
was doubled on learning that a very competent and able person, Shri. Hardayal
Singh, a man with impeccable honesty, has been appointed as Ombudsman for
Mumbai. A very important post going to a deserving person is, indeed, a
welcome move. The Ombudsman of Mumbai is scheduled to start functioning with
effect from 7-6-2007.
In a recent meeting with Mr. Singh, it became clear that he
is a man of mission and vision. The underlining idea is to see that the
functioning of the department is in accordance with the Citizens’ Charter and
the Best Practices, as adopted. He has assured that he intends to implement
the guidelines in their true spirit, without being bogged down with trivial
technicalities. In fact, he has already drafted a Checklist for the benefit of
the complainants. We are also assured about periodic meetings with him to
review the progress of the functioning of the office of the Ombudsman at
Mumbai.
I appeal to all the members to make use of this important
machinery provided by the Government. Now there should not be any excuse for
anybody to not to complain against harassment and other arbitrary actions of
the department officers on the plea that there is no effective machinery to
redress their grievances. Here is a very important authority constituted by
the Government itself specifically to redress such grievances and it is for us
to make effective use of this in order to have a transparent and accountable
administration in the department. If we lose this opportunity then we only
will be to be blamed. In past also, many times, the representatives of the
various associations, including the Chamber, in their periodic meetings with
Chief Commissioners had to face embarrassing situation due to lack of any
concrete or specific complaint being put forward to redress any such
grievance. I am sure, with a very competent and able man having been appointed
at Mumbai, people will be free to approach him, pointing out various lapses on
the part of the department officers. On deserving issues, the Chamber, as a
representative association, can also take up the matters with the Ombudsman,
if the grievances effect a considerable number of assessees. I also request
you all to share your experience with respect to the Ombudsman with the
Chamber.
At the same time, it goes without saying that a
corresponding duty is cast upon all of us to see that only genuine grievances
are filed, and, as far as possible, with creditable data or evidence. A
frivolous complaint would not only undermine this great office but, perhaps,
will provide an excuse to tone down the powers of the Ombudsman. This would be
a great disservice to the tax payers.
For the benefits of the readers, The Income Tax Ombudsman
Guidelines, 2006, together with the Checklist prepared by the Ombudsman of the
Mumbai, is printed at page 117 of this Income Tax Review.
Vipul Joshi
President
