PC BALM----Rubbing salt on taxpayers' wounds

[Harish Chander Bhatia]

PC BALM

Rubbing salt on taxpayers' wounds

I must be cruel only to be kind.

Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.

 The then Finance Minister had announced in the parliament mainly to the professional and tax payers  that " I MUST BE CRUEL ONLY TO BE KIND", so cruelty became rampant but the kindness forgone and the NOW the present finance minister completed the  Hamlet saying that "THUS BAD BEGINS AND WORSE REMAINS BEHIND"

 The weakest lobby of premier institute in India bagged for the help from the finance minister but the scourge minister instead of giving any begging to them picked up the kept in beggar's pot too.

 An another cruel joke and humiliation to the professional community at large by amending the date of TAR ( tax audit report) in a absurd and an ambiguous manner.

 Let me first come out with the compelling reasons for seeking extension in filing of ITR and TAR.

 A) the CBDT , doomed with imperfections introduced the online uploading of the TAR first time, but with no preparation at all,

B) the ITR forms were not even final till 15th of Sept, 2013,

C) the schema to upload the TAR was modified till 24th Sept, 2013,

D) the website abruptly being closed for fixing the bugs and making changes and  up-dation  

E) sudden changes in the policy, like ITR 7 which was being filed manually till 24th Sept, 2013, but what they saw in dreams about TRUSTs and NGOs, abruptly stopped manual returns 24th onwards, 

 It was a time when an extension was sought on the ground of festival season, outbreak of any epidemic, heavy rains, power failure etc, but unlike previous instances of seeking extensions , none of reason briefed above attributed to the professional community and tax payers  at all, the CBDT body itself is not sure, what they really want from the professional and tax payers, why  such cruel attitude and cold welcome for the professionals, why the professional being the rich source of collecting revenue , working at their toes are subject to ministerial terrorism, icy welcome of the delegation, who literally beg for the time to collect more revenue and more accurate compliance of the law AND that too with the interest, so where is the loss of revenue. Is the CBDT is so hand to mouth or starving with the funds that it cannot wait 10-15 days and to grant an extension, why the PC is so adamant and cruel to the professional lobby particularly the chartered accountants.

 I have used the weakest lobby for the premier institute , because they are acting as weak, perhaps they are short of vocabulary or do not have the spirit of serving or lacking leadership credentials, otherwise who can dare not to listen to them and do not show even an hospitality of normal courteous attitude, there are other professional lobbies , who get their say , when ever and in whatever way they want. 

 Now I come to the so called poorly drafted notification  and a undue cover- up press release  by the CBDT spokesperson , quite different and inconsistent in its grammatical meaning , both dated 26th September 2013, a so called benevolent , long sought action of the Government by the professionals,  just hitting on their scalp under the guise of blessing them

 The notification says:

---

 Order under Section 119 of the Income-tax Act 1961 Dated 26th September 2013

---

Time for Furnishing the Report of Audit Electronically Extended till October 31, 2013.

---

The notification says the those who are finding it difficult to upload the TAR electronically MAY  file it manually before the jurisdictional AO within the prescribed due date

And secondly : (b) The said Report of Audit SHOULD  however be furnished electronically on or before 31.10.2013.

And per the rule of interpretation of the statues, it means that those tax payers , who are facing any difficulty in uploading electronically  MAY  file it manually , it means it is not necessary, and those who are not facing any difficulty SHOULD file electronically and to facilitate them the date is extended to 31st October, 2013.

If the meaning derived by me is not so, then what was the need to add the para (b)  stating that the report SHOULD however be furnished electronically on or before 31-10-2013,

 it was simple that those who have any uploading problem through electronic system may file manually and those who have no problem to upload may continue to upload electronically , then why the need to put the date of 31st oct 2013,, BECAUSE Mister PC knows very well if , everybody starts uploading online, the department system will certainly collapse and haplessly Mr. PC has to extend the date as usually for 5-7 days. It reminds me of the following lines:

 for Mr. PC.

"Maybe I'm lucky to be going so slowly, because I may be going in the wrong direction"- Ashleigh Brilliant

So the extension is there, but not for sake of the tax payers but face saving for Mr. PC himself, 

I come back to the notification and immediate press release, which changed the word MAY to REQUIRE, again the spokesperson caught in the vagaries of English language and a sad miscarriage of the legal drafting.

The readers may very well understand the difference in a small sentence below, that" you are REQUIRED  to file and you MAY file. 

If we go with the possible common sense( although that appears to be not common) by applying the brain of the department, the TAR  will be filed on before 30-09-2013 and again uploaded on or before 31-10-2013.

First of the what is mechanism with the department to accept the huge quantity of TARs in just two working days , what the department will do with those TARs, how will verify whether the TARs are as per the balance sheet and audited accounts or otherwise, after uploading it on website , what the department will do with the tons of waste paper, ( a deliberate national wastage of paper , whereas, on the other hand the government is spending crores of rupees for green environment, to save paper to save trees) how the department will monitor that the TARs acknowledgements are not backdated , will this initiative of Mr. PC  may be boost for starving corruption oriented babus , it appears that Mr. PC had taken this decision in haste , without foreseeing any practical difficulties and just to maintain his status of being cruel and stubborn attitude. 

Secondly, under which provision the department can ask for filing of any document twice, why the department does not upload the TARs with its own resources , why duplicity that too at the cost of professional and more so without any use, JUST JUST for the sake of rigidity of attitudinal compliance, without a single penny of revenue gain.

The department had lost its foresightedness and since decades has not been able to win the heart of tax payers, otherwise there would have never been a cause of revenue deficit, the tax payers despite best and the only revenue yielding community are suspect of being dishonest, but this is far far away from the truth, the tax payers have always been fallen prey to wrath of the department for one reason or the another, the department  getting rich is becoming poor from the heart, and the tax payers although becoming poor are getting rich by the heart. The discriminatory behavior in the case of NGOs and the TRUSTs is an another example of the perfect  inexactitude of the department, it had called for manual ITR 7 till 24th Sept, 2013 and then stopped manually and started electronically, now what is the status of manual returns, will it be required to be filed electronically of left it undecided, there is no clear cut policies of the department, no home work is done, every task and act of the department is far away and devoid the ground realities and practicalities and without any experience , public opinion, joint discussion and not introduced but thrust upon the gullible taxpayers who are destined scapegoats.

So , always remember ; 

thus the bad begins and worse remain behind,

I was cruel, I will be cruel ,

always adamant and never to be kind

Season may be Hot, Cool may be wind,

I am not of a kind , to a be kind ,