Jammu, Mar 17: Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, J&K and Ladakh has conveyed to the Finance department that all defaulters or erring J&K employees, who have claimed excessive deductions, will face stringent action.
The communique to the Finance department has mentioned that majority of employees from different departments including Education, Health, PDD, PHE, Cooperatives, Sports, Tourism, Industry, PWD and Police departments have been found to be indulged in claiming excessive deductions under various sections of the Income Tax Act viz., BOC, 800, 8000, 8000B, 80EB, BOE, 80EE, 80EEB,80G, 80GGC etc., for which “they were ineligible and such deductions were also found to be inconsonant with their income profile.”
According to the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, these erring employees may face levying of tax along with penalty at the rate 200 percent of tax evaded by them and interest on tax computed in their respective cases following detailed scrutiny.
“Such employees may also face prosecution under section 276C and 277 of the IT Act which may lead to rigorous imprisonment for a term ranging from 3 months to 7 years along with fine besides attachment of bank accounts of defaulters to recover the fraudulently claimed amounts from them,” he warned.
Apart from these actions, non-compliance with the Department’s communication will also attract a penalty of Rs 10,000 for each default.
Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, however, has stated, “In order to avoid any coercive action from the department, the defaulter employees may file updated ITR u/s 139(8A) of the lT Act and withdraw incorrect claims made by them and pay taxes under section 140B of the Act as per the specified timeline.”
Further, it has been advised that updated ITRs for the relevant years may be filed immediately without waiting for due dates, as delay in filing ITRs will result in issuance of show cause notices or selection of cases under scrutiny besides payment of additional taxes.
As per the stipulations, if ITR is filed within 12 months from the end of relevant Financial year – the assessee will have to pay 25 percent of the total amount of tax and interest as additional tax.
If ITR is filed within 12 to 24 months from the end of the relevant Financial year- they will have to pay 50 percent of the total amount of tax and interest as additional tax.
Following this communication, the Principal Secretary Finance department Santosh D Vaidya has asked all the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of Departments to issue advisories and direct the Drawing and Disbursing Officers under their control to ensure that the defaulter J&K employees file updated ITR u/s 139(8A) of the IT Act.
They have also been asked to ensure that the employees, who have claimed excessive deductions under various sections of the Income Tax Act, withdraw incorrect claims made by them and pay taxes under section 140B of the Act within the prescribed timelines to avoid any coercive action from the IT department.