I-T Department's information utilisation deficient, says CAG

NEW DELHI: There are deficiencies in the Income Tax Department's utilisation of information related to taxation and sometimes available details are either inadequate or incorrect, says a report by official auditor CAG.

These observations are part of the auditor's report on strengthening the tax base through the use of information tabled in Parliament today.

"We found several deficiencies in the scheme of flow and utilisation of information ... some the information lacked basic information like PAN of assesses thereby rendering it useless," the report said.

The IT Department uses "pieces of information" from different sources to strengthen the tax base besides getting information from tax returns filed by the assesses, the report said.

These findings come at a time when the government, hard pressed for funds, is looking at ways to bolster the tax base.

CAG also came across cases where incorrect information was transmitted to Assessing Officers (AOs).

"Income Tax Department made no effort to transfer this incorrect transmitted information to AOs to correct assesses," it said.

Noting that the Department was not following the notices seeking requisite information from various entities, the report said the full functionality of the Central Information Branch (CIB) module.

The IT Department's CIB collects, uploads information into the system and disseminates them to AOs, it said.

The report is for the year ended March 2012. "Strengthening the tax base is arguably one of the most important aspects of the direct tax management.