The Union Budget 2023-24 has proposed sure adjustments to the Income Tax search and seizure provisions in view of the elevated use of expertise and digitisation within the administration and upkeep of accounts, digitisation of information, cloud storage and different related points.
Section 132 of the Income-Tax Act pertains to the process for the search and seizure to be adopted by the company.
The doc mentioned: “In the recent past, due to the increased use of technology and digitisation in every aspect including management and maintenance of accounts, digitisation of data, cloud storage etc., the procedure for search and seizure has become complex, requiring the use of data forensics, advanced technologies for decoding data etc., for complete and proper analysis of accounts.”
Similarly, “there is an increasing trend of undisclosed income being held in a vast variety of forms of assets or investments in addition to immovable property. Valuation of such assets and decryption of information often require specific domain experts like digital forensic professionals, valuers, archive experts etc. In addition to this, services of other professionals like locksmiths, carpenters etc., are also required in most of the cases, due to typical nature of the operations”.
Accordingly, the federal government has proposed to amend the related provisions of the part to make sure that throughout the course of I-T searches, the authorised officer could possibly requisition the providers of every other individual or entity, as accredited by the Principal Chief Commissioner or the Chief Commissioner, the Principal Director General or the Director-General, in accordance with the process prescribed by the Board on this regard, for help throughout the search.
It has additionally been proposed that in or put up search, the officer could make a reference to any individual, entity or authorised valuer to estimate the honest market worth of the property within the method prescribed and submit a report inside 60 days from the receipt of reference.
If accredited, the modification will take impact from April 1.
“Consequent to the changes in 2021, the assessment or reassessment in consequence to search is now performed under Section 147 of the Act and provisions of Sections 153A and 153B are no longer applicable. The timelines for completing assessment or reassessment in search cases are linked to the execution of the last of the authorisations during such procedure, in order to establish the day of conclusion of search proceedings, and what constitutes as last authorisation is provided in Section 153B,” it mentioned.
As the provisions of Section 153B are not relevant, the federal government has proposed to offer the that means of execution of final authorisation below Section 132 itself. “This amendment will take effect retrospectively from the April 1, 2022,” it mentioned.
Source: www.thehindu.com