NEW
DELHI, MAY 16, 2006 : FOR the Ministry of Finance (MoF) the community
of "informers" forms a unique network and helps the revenue department
in detecting huge amount of tax evasion. However many a times the informers
are denied the full information on recoveries made by the department, which
in fact is the base amount for deciding the reward (up to 20 percent of the total
recovery). But now here is a good news for the community of "Informers"
as the Central Information Commission (CIC) under Right to Information Act
(RTI), has held that "relevant investigation report could be made public,
soon after the taxes due from the offenders are recovered.”
In an interesting decision though the CIC said that until the nature of offence
is duly examined and thoroughly investigated and necessary action is taken
under the relevant provisions of tax laws, the disclosure of investigation
report on tax evasion is barred u/s 8(1) (h). However the commission also
added that once the investigation is complete the relevant report could be
made public.
What
made the CIC to come to this conclusion was a case where the information seeker
sought information on her own complaint. The case is related to the tax evasion
on account of sale transaction of property, in New Delhi, reported by the
seller of the property herself. She filed a complaint to the Director Income
Tax (Investigation) against Mr. Manmeet Singh and Mrs. Surender Kaur (buyers)
who had paid much higher amount to her (Ms. Pushpinder Paul Kaur Rana) than
what was actually revealed by them to the DIT to evade taxes.
In
2005 the seller herself sought information relating to the action taken by
the IT department on her complaints made in 2001 against persons. In particular,
she asked for the sale price declared by the buyers during the investigation
and as per their income tax returns.
However the CPIO of department said that the information sought cannot be
made available, as it is exempt u/s 8 (1)(j). Also the department said that
being personal information, the disclosure of which has no relationship to
any public activity or interest. The Appellate Authority under RTI too upheld
the CPIO terming the case as personal grievance.
But when the appellant carried the case to CIC, the commission observed that
it contained personal information like PAN number of the complainee, which
cannot be disclosed, however the commission also directed the DIT (Investigation)
to disclose the report as per the provision u/s 10 (1) & (2), after the
entire process of investigation and tax recovery is complete in every respect.
Also it was directed that the DIT (Inv.) should inform the complainant about
the completion of investigations by them and the subsequent advice given to
the concerned department for initiating appropriate action on the tax evasion
and other related matter.
Well, now if an informer wishes to know about the outcome of the investigation
done, s/he can approach the department for the whole detail and of course claim
the right amount of reward, which is up to 20 percent of the total recovery made by
the department. Indeed the decision will encourage the informers to put an indirect
pressure for a faster investigation process and of course it will bring more
transparency in the investigation process of the department.
(See
full text of Decision in
2006-HRIOL-72-CIC)
