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The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has decided to fully utilise the experience of income tax officials recently transferred to the sales tax department for improving the quality of sales tax audit, which is solely in the hands of a low grade sales tax auditor. In this connection, the CBR will also transfer Grade 19-20 income tax officials in future for making sales tax department taxpayer-friendly.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that senior income tax officials would assist the sales tax department in supervising the audit of the registered persons, which would definitely curtail the unlimited powers of the sales tax auditors.
He said that the transfer of income tax officials in the sales tax department would improve the quality of audit.
The income tax officials have vast experience of carrying out assessments, which would be utilised by the sales tax department. On the other hand, the low quality audit without any check needs proper monitoring/supervision and income tax officials would assist in the regard.
Under Universal Self-Assessment Scheme (USAS), there will be less need of tax officials required on the income tax side as all returns are accepted as per USAS. Therefore, income tax officials would no more require to re-open assessments etc, whereas CBR will select a small percentage of corporate and non-corporate cases for audit.
For re-opening of cases, the commissioner should have enough evidence of concealment or there is 'definite information' about the concealment of taxpayer income.
Thus the issue of overstaffing issue would also be properly handled by transferring such officials in the sales tax department.
Moreover, it is a world-wide practice that a businessman has to pay taxes at one place and keep a single registration instead of multiple registrations and paying taxes at different places.
Sources said that the tax authorities have made it clear to the income tax officials that officials from Grade-18 to 20 could be posted on the sales tax side. There is no such policy that senior income tax officials can not be posted in the sales tax department.
Under the reform agenda, the income tax and sales tax department would be merged over a period of time.
Even the custom and sales tax departments themselves requested the CBR to give tax officials from the income tax side for better performance, they added.
Under section 10 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, they said, any civil servant can be transferred anywhere within or outside the country.
However, this section has a wide scope, which can be used for the transfer of officials from one government department to another.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2004

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