Indian Express: New Delhi: Thursday, July 12, 2018.
THE ELECTION
Commission (EC) has written to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT),
requesting it to evolve a “uniform format” to report discrepancies between
assets declared by candidates in their election affidavits and income-tax
filings. The EC’s letter was dispatched this week after it was cautioned by
CBDT against disclosing the scrutiny of assets declared in poll affidavits.
As first
reported by The Indian Express on June 24, the poll panel, in letters to the
CBDT in November 2017 and April this year, had sought clarification on whether
the panel could allow the public to access reports on the verification of
election affidavits by the Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) under
the RTI Act.
The EC is of
the view that since a verification report is not a probe report, its disclosure
should not be restricted under Section 24 of RTI Act, which exempts certain
organisations from being covered under this law. This includes the Director
General of Income Tax (DGIT).
In its
response sent in May, the CBDT told the EC that disclosing the verification
report is not “feasible” since it would be in contravention of Section 138 of
Income Tax Act. Section 138 prescribes a general prohibition on furnishing any
information with regard to an assessee under the IT Act. It has also mentioned
that such disclosures are punishable.