The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has taken a step to "ensure greater transparency and accountability in tax administration", according to a press release on Wednesday.
"The CBDT has decided to attach a Documentation Identification Number (DIN) to each of its communication from October 1, be it a notice, order, summon, letter or any other correspondence. Any communication without a computer-generated DIN would be treated as invalid and shall be deemed to have never been issued. All such communications would be verifiable on the e-filing portal," an official release read.
According to the release, the need for DIN was felt as in some instances in the past the "audit trail' of the manual communication could not be maintained, however, from October 1 there will be no communication without the number except in some exceptional circumstances.
"CBDT said that there have been some instances where it was not possible to maintain the audit trail of the communication issued manually," the release read.
"But in such exceptional circumstances, which are specified in the circular dated August 14, while issuing any manual communication it would be required to specify the reason of issuing a communication without DIN along with the date of obtaining written approval of the Chief Commissioner or Director General of Income Tax in a particular format," it added.
According to the release, any communication which is not in conformity of the prescribed guidelines shall be treated as invalid and will be "non est in law".
CBDT has also specified that any communication issued manually under exceptional circumstances would have to be uploaded and regularised on the system portal within 15 days of its issuance.
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