Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 19: Income Tax Department organized outreach programmes cum interactive session at Katra and Basohli under the overall supervision of M P Singh, Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Srinagar and under the guidance of Rajeev Gubgotra, Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, Range-1 Jammu.
At Katra, the outreach programme was organized by Vijay Choudhary, Income Tax Officer, Katra with CAs, Accountants and other tax professionals at Income Tax Office, Katra.
Vijay Choudhary apprised the gathering about a recent trend of claim of wrong deductions to secure fraudulent refunds thereby resulting in loss to Government exchequer. He said that the Department was closely monitoring such cases and in certain identified cases, action was being simultaneously taken not only by Income Tax Department but also by the State Crime Branch.
It was emphasized that consequences of claiming fraudulent refunds includes selection of cases in scrutiny and recovery of tax, levy of penalty under section 270A which is 200 percent of tax evaded and prosecution under section 276C of Income Tax Act, which can lead to rigorous imprisonment upto seven years.
“The remedy available for rectifying such mistakes are filing of updated return under section 139(8A) of IT Act for AY: 2021-22 & 2022-23 before 31.03.2024 (by paying 50 percent and 25 percent penalty respectively in addition to tax) and revision of ITR for AY: 2023-24 before 31.12.2023 without paying any penalty,” he informed.
Similar outreach programme/interactive session with DDOs falling in Tehsils Basohli and Mahanpur was conducted at DIET Basohli by Satesh K Koul Income Tax Officer, Kathua.
The primary agenda of this outreach programme was also to apprise about fraudulent/fake deductions claimed by taxpayers and claiming bogus Income Tax refund of TDS deducted from their salaries by the DDOs by filing Income Tax Returns.
The DDO’s were sensitized and cautioned about the repercussions of claiming bogus refunds. It was also advised by ITO Kathua in the interactive session that wherever required, tax payers should submit their revised returns for A.Y 2023-24 well in advance of the closing date, i e, 31st December, 2023.
They were also advised to file the return themselves through Income Tax portal or to approach authorized Income Tax practitioners and not to fall under the fraudulent self-styled touts. DDOs were also advised to issue advisories in their own department.
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