To
Government of India Sir/Madam
Subject: Compulsory manual selection of cases for scrutiny during the Financial Year 2015-2016-
regd:-
1. In supersession of earlier Instructions on the above subject, the Board hereby lays down the following
procedure and criteria for manual selection of returns/cases for scrutiny during the financial-year 2015-2016:-
a) Cases involving addition in an earlier assessment year in excess of Rs. 10 lakhs on a
substantial and recurring question of law or fact which is either confirmed in appeal or is
pending before an appellate authority.
b) Cases involving addition in an earlier assessment year on the issue of transfer pricing in excess
of Rs. 10 crore or more on a substantial and recurring question of law or fact which is either
confirmed in appeal or is pending before an appellate authority.
c) All assessments pertaining to Survey under section 133A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ('Act')
excluding those cases where books of accounts, documents etc. were not impounded and
returned income (excluding any disclosure made during the Survey) is not less than returned
income of preceding assessment year. However, where assessee retracts the disclosure made
during the Survey, such cases will not be covered by this exclusion.
d) Assessments in search and seizure cases to be made under section(s) 158B, 158BC, 158BD,
153A & 153C read with section 143(3) of the Act and also for the returns filed for the
assessment year relevant to the previous year in which authorization for search and seizure
was executed u/s 132 or 132A of the Act.
e) Returns filed in response to notice under section 148 of the Act.
f) Cases where registration u/s 12M of the IT Act has not been granted or has been cancelled
by the CIT/DIT concerned, yet the assessee has been found to be claiming tax-exemption
under section 11 of the Act. However, where such orders of the CIT/DIT have been
reversed/set-aside in appellate proceedings, those cases will not be selected under this clause.
g) Cases where the approval already granted u/s 1O(23C)/35(1)(ii)/35(1)(iii)/10(46) of the Act
has been withdrawn by the Competent Authority, yet the assessee has been found claiming
tax-exemption/benefit under the aforesaid provisions.
h) Cases in respect of which specific and verifiable information pointing out tax-evasion is given
by Government Departments/Authorities. The Assessing Officer shall record reasons and take
prior approval from jurisdictional Pro CCIT/CCIT/Pr. DGIT/DGIT concerned before selecting
such a case for scrutiny.
2. Computer Aided Scrutiny Selection (CASS): Cases are also being selected under CASS on the basis of broad
based selection filters. List of such cases shall be separately intimated in due course by the Pr.DGIT(Systems) to
the jurisdictional authorities concerned.
3. It is reiterated that the targets for completion of scrutiny assessments and strategy of framing quality
assessments as contained in Central Action Plan document for Financial-Year 2015-2016 have to be complied
with and it must be ensured that all scrutiny assessment orders including the cases selected under the manual
criterion are completed through the AST system software only. Further, in order to ensure the quality of
assessments being framed, Pro CCsIT/CCsIT/Pr. DsGIT/DsGIT should evolve a suitable monitoring mechanism
and by 30th April, 2016, such authorities shall send a report to the respective Zonal Member with a copy to
Member (IT) containing details of at least 50 quality assessment orders from their respective charges. In this
regard, IT Authorities concerned must ensure that cases selected for publication in 'Let us Share' are picked up
only from the quality assessments as reported.
4. These instructions may be brought to the notice of all concerned.
5. Hindi version to follow.
(Rohit Garg)
Deputy-Secretary to the Government of India
F.No. 225/201/2015/ITA.1I
Copy to:
1. PS to FM/OSD to FM/PS to MoS (R)/OSD to MoS(R)
2. PS TO Secretary (Revenue)
3. Chairperson, CBDT & All Members, CBDT
4. All Joint Secretaries/CsIT, CBDT
5. Directors/Deputy Secretaries/Under Secretaries of CBDT
6. DIT(PR,PP&OL), Mayur Bhawan, N.Delhi
7. The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India
8. ITCC Division, CBDT
9. The JS & Legal Advisor, Ministry of Law & Justice
10. NIC, M/o Fin-for uploading on the Department's website
11. Data-Base Cell for uploading on irs officers website