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TMI Blog2017 (8) TMI 254X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r Zonal Unit, Jaipur Mr. Namit Mehta, Addl. Commissioner GST Mr. Sanjay Kumar Gupta, Registrar of Companies, Raj & Official liquidator, Jaipur Mr. S.K. Gupta, DG, Income Tax (Inv.) Mr. N.S. Janpangi, Addl. DG, Income Tax Mr. Vahid Alia, Addl. Commissioner (Legal) Commercial Tax Deptt Dr. Hemant Kumar, Asstt Director, DRI, Jaipur Mr. G.P. Gupta, Sr. Intelligence Officer Mr. Subhash Chandra Agarwal, Commissioner, Customs Dr. Rajesh Sharma, IG, Registration & Stamps Department, Ajmer Mr. Satyapal, Addl. IG, Registration & Stamps Department, Jaipur Mr. P.K. Jain, General Manager (Law) for RBI JUDGMENT 1. This court on 19.12.2016 heard the revision petition / reference of the Revenue, being not satisfied, dismissed the petitions preferred by the Revenue. However, the facts transpired that it is a case where the assessment was reopened by the Assessing Officer on an information having been received from the Income Tax Department, who had searched / surveyed the respondent assessee and on that basis, the assessment was reopened. However, though the assessment was reopened and proceedings commenced but the AO did not care to seek further information from the Income Tax Department and mer ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Sales Tax Officers / Senior Officials of the Sales Tax Department, desired repetitive information from the Income Tax Department about the material gathered / collected by them during the course of search / survey conducted by the Income Tax Department and it was expressed by the Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, that despite even bringing to the notice in the meeting of REIC the information was not received and taking clue on this, it was noticed that there was no proper coordination in between the members of various Tax Departments and one agency was not expected to repeatedly request for providing information and the other not giving, that means the other agency was reluctant to pass, for the reasons best known and the very purpose of forming REIC was defeated. REIC was formed for a purpose and not for holding meetings that's all. 6. It is an admitted fact known to all that under most of the tax proceedings, namely under Income Tax / Sales Tax or Service Tax and other Tax Departments, a time barring period is fixed within which an assessment is to be completed, come what may and if by the deadline assessment is not completed, all the proceedings come to a standstill and gets ti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rends/ patterns of economic crimes. above a threshold limit (to be decided by each REIC) would necessarily be exchanged timely and promptly between the members of the REICs; joint operations could also be considered, if found necessary. An illustrative format for exchange of information is given at Annexure-II. The REICs would meet bi-monthly and would be attended by the designated officers. Regular minutes of the meeting would be maintained by the REICs detailing action taken on the information exchanged between various agencies and the net result of information exchanged would be sent to the convener in the illustrative format given as Annexure-III and made part of the minutes. 7). The office of the Convener would act as a permanent secretariat to the REIC. 8). The Convener of the REIC is authorized to invite representatives from other intelligence agencies whenever matters relating to areas of interest to them are taken up for discussion. The functioning of the REICs would be coordinated by the CEIB. The REICs would send a monthly report by the 10th of the following month in the proforma enclosed as Annexure-IV. In addition, CEIB will convene a meeting of the Conveners b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s on behalf of the Tax / other Departments to whom they are representing. The minutes of the meeting of REIC members committee held on 7.6.2017 and 29.6.2017 have been placed on record and are taken on record, which binds the respective Departments. 11. On perusal of the above minutes, it transpires that now after the court took cognizance, certainly most of the Departments have become vigilant and active in taking it to a logical end, when earlier in the beginning when this Court took cognizance even most of the Departments were unaware about the role and functioning of REIC. 12. At this juncture, it would be appropriate to quote some paras of additional affidavits filed on behalf of the respective Departments which would help in future to be more transparent in exchanging the information. Salient features of the affidavit filed on behalf of the Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) dt. 15.7.2017, are quoted hereunder :- "At the end of the meeting, DGIT(Inv.), Jaipur and covener REIC, Jaipur, gave the following suggestions to make the REIC platform more result oriented:- (a) A manual for sharing of information that was last published in 2015 is being shared with all ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ns of participant members were discussed and the memebers agreed to bring the following into action: 1. Date for the regular meeting for REIC was fixed for 29th of June with the consent of all the participant members. 2. All the members agreed that from now on the meetings of the nodal officers shall also be held regularly. It was also decided by the members that the meetings of Nodal Officers and REIC members would now be held alternatively every two monts. Hence, the REIC member meetings would now be held bi-monthly for better follow up of the cases. 3. The possibility of having an online mechanism for sharing of information may also be explored. 4. It was also mutually decided that in future, the sharing of documents may be done at the nodal officers level, which will result in real time action and the members need not wait for the REIC meeting to happen. 5. In case if two departments have mutually shared information, then the same may be shared with other members at the next REIC meeting. 6. Each department to modify their internal formats for sharing of information." 12.1 Salient features of the letter from the Office of Director General, State Directorate of Rev ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ency from where the accepting agencies can get a copy. 5. The REIC may think of conducting at least one joint operation during a financial year involving different participating organization. In case it is not posssible to do so because of secrecy or logistic reasons then after an organization have secured premises and before leaving it, after it has completed its work, it may call an agency for further action if it can be beneficial for that agency. 6. There is no fixed time limit set for the completion of cases by accepting agencies. It is an agreed fact that different participating agencies have different time limit for completion of a particular case and some case may not be actionable at all. However, a time limit should be fixed and adhered for providing a preliminary report. The sharing of information and feedback mechanism should be preferably online for which an effective website like FIU-IND needs to be developed which will also ensure effective monitoring and time saving. 7. REIC is the nodal agency for economic intelligence and it can work effectively when members and nodal officers participate on regular basis. It has been seen in the past that many members do no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... h information is transmitted by all the Agencies in their possession. Accordingly, it is directed that no sooner a search / survey is conducted wherever necessary, let the Agency who has conducted the search / survey pass on not only the information of search / survey being conducted of the person searched, but also the incriminating material / information gathered will also be transferred / transmitted in a confidential seal cover for use to the Chief / Head of the other Departments after putting a seal & signature by the Officer from whose possession these documents are being sent. Let a direction be given that such information lying in possession be forwarded/transmitted within a period not later than 3 months and in case information is not passed than the said officer would be held personally liable of the consequences which may follow. 16. Taking into consideration the aforesaid, let all the Tax departments and other members in REIC act in tandem of the mandate for which REIC is constituted and act in accordance with law, catch hold and effectively dealing an economic offender. 17. No further directions are needed for the affidavits and suggestions and mandate of REIC is suf ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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