Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 28: Income-Tax Bar Association today held a meeting under the chairmanship of its president Advocate Sat Mehta and discussed various issues concerning non-issuance of refund orders to the tax payers by the department.
The recent direction passed by the Delhi High Court asking the Income Tax Department not to adjust the refunds against the past arrears without giving sufficient opportunity to the assessee to explain his case were welcomed by the association.
The members expressed surprise over the recent move of the Income-Tax Department, Jammu to issue letters to the assessees advising them to approach the deductors and pursue them to make payment of the tax deducted from them with the Central Government and file TDS returns so that the credit for the same could be given to them.
General Secretary of the Association Advocate VK Grover regretted that despite so many rectification, appeal effects and other tax reducing applications lying pending disposal with the Income-tax authorities even for the years prior to 2010 the demands have been uploaded to the CPC Banglore causing blockage of refunds.
The other major factor causing denial of timely refunds is non-payment of TDS by defaulting Drawing and Disbursing Officers and subsequent uploading of TDS returns by them. The irony is that despite the Income-Tax Department having sufficient powers to ensure compliance of statutory provisions by the defaulting Drawing and Disbursing Officers by invoking penal as well as prosecution powers under the Income-Tax Act, 1961 have chosen to keep silent putting the honest tax payers to inconvenience of delayed payments of refunds and sometimes denial of the same causing financial loss to them.
Mehta urged the Income-tax authorities of J&K to appropriately act in the matter in the context of directions issued by the Delhi High Court.
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