More search powers for taxmen

The Central Board of Excise and Customs has decided to put more teeth to its search and seizure operations by bringing together all the scattered provisions under the Central Excise Act into one comprehensive manual.

The department has referred the draft manual to the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence for approval. Based on the inputs received from the DGCEI, the CBEC will hold a workshop with senior officials to finalise the guidelines.

The exercise is also meant to ensure that field formations resort to such operations only as a last resort.

In Budget 2003-04, the Income-Tax department has drastically cut the scope of search and seizure operations and reduced the role of its investigation wing.

CBEC officials feel there is an urgent need to bring all existing instructions on the subject in a single manual to achieve streamlining, as there are no such compendiums available at present.

The department derives its powers to mount a search and seizure operation under Section 18 of the Central Excise Act. However, because of numerous notifications, circulars and amendments brought in over the years, the different field formation are believed to be applying different rules for similar cases.

This has resulted in a multiplicity of litigation. Further, as a result of the discrepancies among the collectorates, many search and seizure operations have been struck down by the appellate authorities.

Senior officials said since the department had issued a plethora of revised instructions over the years, conflicting instructions have emerged. These could be sorted out now, they added.

The department is also in the process of bringing together the adjudication rules.

Besides as the rules and notifications are issued in an ad hoc manner, the officials said field formations have developed their own interpretations of the same, which are not conducive to the aim of simplified administration of a modern tax regime.

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh has repeatedly said that he is in favour of ushering in a modern tax administration, with the least possible interface of the public with the department.