Tax evasion petation
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 15 October 2011
This query is : Resolved
Hi Experts
I have filed a tax evasion petion against a person on Aug 2010 and thereafter i have filed an RTI to ITO to get the status(jan 2011)
i recevied a letter from ITO to submit the proofs in respect of TEP
i have submitted all the proofs and they replied that they will provide me the infromation once TEP enquiry will over
After three months i got reply from ITO that information cannot be provided under section 8(i)(j)
(ITO has not applied section 8(i)(h))
After that i have filed a First appeal,FAA has order ITO to provide all the information
After FAA order i have recvied a reply that
enquiry in not yet completed and will be completed by 30-09-2011
After this i have again(on 5-10-2011) asked ITO to provide info. but he is saying that
enquiry is not yet completed
HE is simply denying information
Could you please let me know is there any time limit to complete TEP?
how i can proceed on this to get the information,(i came to know that ITO has recveied some illegal money from that party) ?
Thanks
Anil
Shonee Kapoor
(Expert) 15 October 2011
Contact me at my email ID.
The same was denied to me, but I got the information in first appeal. cite following judgements of CIC
Regards,
Shonee Kapoor
harassed.by.498a@gmail.com
Although it has been the decision of the Commission that income tax-related details of assessees should not be disclosed through RTI-proceedings, the matters related to tax-evasion petitions can, in certain circumstances, be considered for disclosure. In the Commission’s view in a majority of cases of the tax-evasion petitions, the petitioner is entitled to receive the status at any given time about the processing of that tax-evasion petition.
The same finds force by the decision of CIC in F.No. CIC/AT/A/2008/0268 decided on 16.07.2008 in Shri Badri Verma Vs Income Tax Department.
Taking a tough stand in Yamaji Sakharam Rathod Vs CIT-Aurangabad in 2007/00009 dated 02.03.07 the CIC had stated
The information was denied under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act but the CIC held that tax evasion cannot be said to be a personal matter of the tax evader. The evasions involve public money and are therefore related to public activity and have a public purpose. The appellant is entitled to a response from the public authority about the status of the action on his petition.
It may also be noticed that in File No CIC/LS/A/2009/01014 (B.B. Singh Vs DGIT (Inv), Lucknow) decided on 1.1.2010, the commission observed:
Besides, it is also to be noted that blank ban on disclosure of information regarding the action taken on tax evasion complaints may not always be in the best interest of the state revenues. In fact, it may dis-enthuse the information givers as information givers are generally keen to know whether the information provided by them has been of some value to the authorities or not. Feed back in this regard would motivate the information givers to provide further informations to the authorities and thereby enable them to curb tax evasion and enhance the state revenues.
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 16 October 2011
Expert Shonee Kapoor has perfectly replied your query .
