Tax advocates, CAs allowed to issue PANs

Expanding the outsourcing net for the filing of income tax returns and issuing of Permanent Account Numbers (PANs), the Central Board of Direct taxes (CBDT) has decided to permit tax professionals like chartered accountants and tax advocates to act as e-intermediaries between the revenue department and the assessees.

The scheme got an in-principle approval from Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and would be formally launched in March when the technical details of the scheme will be announced, B Swarup, member (Investigation), CBDT, said at a conference held at Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

The submission of relevant documents and other requirements will also be worked out.

He said this scheme was in line with the series of initiatives taken by the CBDT to make the procuring of PAN number and filing of returns hassle free.

The taxpayer, apart from applying to Unit Trust of India (UTI) and National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) for a PAN number, could now apply through a tax professional also, he said.

Tax professionals would have access to servers of the IT department, UTI and NSDL and PAN numbers would be immediately communicated to the assessees.

He said the data would be verified using digital signature of the e-intermediary, which would help in authentication of data.

Swarup, however, clarified that a tax professional would not be responsible for any wrong information like under statement of income, presented in the documents.

"A professional's responsibility would be confined to ensure that whatever information is presented in the documents is captured correctly," he said.

He said some other tax payer friendly measures were in pipeline too, like scheme to be launched shortly, which would credit a tax refund directly to accounts of those assesses who have filed their returns electronically.

Swarup said the aim of the IT department was to concentrate on its core competency of revenue collection, while all other functions could be outsourced to professional individuals and institutes.

Not taxing anymore

• Tax professionals like chartered accountants and tax advocates allowed to act as e-intermediaries between the revenue department and assessees
• The scheme has got an in-principle approval from Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and will be formally launched in March, when the technical details of the scheme will be announced
• The scheme is in line with the series of initiatives taken by the CBDT to make the procuring of PAN number and the filing of returns hassle free
• The taxpayer, apart from applying to UTI and National Securities Depository Ltd for a PAN number, can now apply through a tax professional also