The Hindu Business Line : Tax refund cases of over Rs 5 lakh to come under scrutiny

The Finance Ministry has issued instructions to field formations to ensure that cases involving final refunds of over Rs 5 lakh do not remain outside the scope of scrutiny selection.

“Certain cases had come to the notice of the Board (Central Board of Direct Taxes) where the initial refund determination was less than Rs 5 lakh but subsequently after factoring in certain TDS or credit of tax paid, the final refund was exceeding Rs 5 lakh. Instructions have been issued to commissioners to ensure that such cases are brought to the notice of DIT (systems) so that they do not remain outside the scope of computer-aided scrutiny selection (CASS),” a Finance Ministry official said.

The official made it clear that there was no change in the scrutiny norms already laid out for the current fiscal. “We are only trying to ensure that nobody gets an unfair advantage when the final refund is determined and escape the process of law by remaining outside the scope of selection of scrutiny cases,” the official added.

It was also highlighted that the latest instruction would not impact large number of tax assessees. “There may be only a few hundred cases that may get covered by this instruction. The impact will not be much,” the official maintained.

The latest instruction does not relate to any particular category of assessees, but in general to refund cases where the eventual refund exceeds Rs 5 lakh, an official said.

Already, as per the CBDT norms for the current fiscal, under selection of cases meant for scrutiny, all banks and public sector undertakings are liable for scrutiny. Also, all NSE-500 companies and BSE-A group companies listed as on March 31, 2007 are covered.