The Documentation Identification Number (DIN) system, which has become operative from 1st October 2019, shall be applicable to all kinds of communications from the income tax department, whether it is associated with assessment, appeals, investigation, penalty, as well as rectification amongst other things. This development would also help taxpayers detect fake notices and letters as the notice would be verifiable on the department's e-filing portal. The Finance Ministry stated in a statement that the Documentation Identification Number (DIN) system of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had come into existence recently with the generation of approximately 17,500 communications with DIN on the very first day.
The Finance Ministry stated that this path-breaking DIN system was created inconsistent with the direction of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and from now onwards, all the CBDT communication is required to have a documentation identification number.
Previously in August, the CBDT had stated that it would attach a DIN to each of its communication from 1st October 2019, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement that taxmen who disturb honest taxpayers shall be punished. The PM had asked the revenue secretary in order to come up with methods to make certain that honest taxpayers are not harassed anymore and those who committed minor or procedural contraventions were not subjected to excessive action.
The Revenue Secretary had also stated that any communication from Income Tax Department without a computer-generated DIN, whether it is a notice, letter, order and summon or any additional correspondence, shall be considered to be as invalid as well as would be non est in law or deemed to be as if it has never been issued.
The Revenue Secretary has also mentioned that the DIN system shall make certain greater accountability and transparency in tax administration. All such communications with DIN is going to be verifiable on the e-filing portal and no communication shall be issued manually without DIN except only if it is in the specific exceptional circumstances.
CBDT has said that any communication which has been manually issued under exceptional conditions shall require be uploading as well as regularising on the system portal in 15 days of its issuance. Each and every of the pending assessment actions, where notices were previously issued manually, before the DIN linked Circular dated 14th August 2019, coming into existence, every such matter will be identified and notices so sent will be uploaded on ITBA by the end of this month, that is, by 31st October 2019.
Conclusion
Therefore, it might be noted that previously there were some instances where it was not feasible to continue the audit trail of the manually issued communication which in few cases caused inconvenience towards taxpayers sometimes. Though, with the current system of attaching a DIN towards every notice or communication of CBDT shall result in enhanced services to taxpayers without any probable harassment.
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