Central Board of Direct Tax

Why is in news? CBDT makes some offenses under Income Tax Act compoundable

• CBDT has issued Revised Guidelines for compounding of offences under the Income-tax Act, 1961.
• CBDT has taken this step in conformity with the Government's policy of facilitating Ease of Doing Business and decriminalisation of offences.
• Some of the major changes made for the benefit of taxpayers include making offence punishable under Section 276 of the Act as compoundable.
• The scope of eligibility for compounding of cases has been relaxed where case of an applicant who has been convicted with imprisonment for less than 2 years being previously non-compoundable, has now been made compoundable.
• The discretion available with the competent authority has also been suitably restricted.
• The time limit for acceptance of compounding applications has been relaxed from the earlier limit of 24 months to 36 months now, from the date of filing of complaint.
• Procedural complexities have also been simplified.
• Compoundable offences are those that can be compromised, i.e. the complainant can agree to take back the charges levied against the accused, whereas, non - compoundable offences are the more serious offences in which the parties cannot compromise
• The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is a part of Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, is a statutory authority.
• Central Board of Revenue bifurcated and a separate Board for Direct Taxes known as Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) constituted under the Central Board of Revenue Act, 1963.
• CBDT provides essential inputs for policy and planning of direct taxes in India, at the same time it is also responsible for administration of direct tax laws through the Income Tax Department.
• The officials of the Board in their ex-officio capacity also function as a Division of the Ministry dealing with matters relating to levy and collection of direct taxes.