No.DTC/2009-10/REP-2
13th May, 2009

Mr. S.S.N. Moorthy
Chairman
Central Board of Direct Taxes
Department of Revenue
Ministry of Finance
Government of India
North Block
New Delhi 110 001.
 
Respected Sir,
 
Sub:- Undue hardship faced by assessees on account of delay of refund in scrutiny cases in respect of A.Y. 2007-08
 
As you are kindly aware, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has issued an Instruction no.12/2008 dated 5th September 2008 for clearing the large pendency of returns for the Assessment year 2007-08. We heartily appreciate the efforts being taken by the Central Board of Direct Taxes to meet up its target for speedier processing of returns.

In the said Instruction, it has been mentioned that all pending returns for A.Y. 2007-08 involving refund claims (including electronic returns with refund claims) must be processed on priority basis by 30th September, 2008. Where any scrutiny assessment is pending in these cases, refund should be issued only after completion of the scrutiny assessment.
 
In this regard, we wish to bring to your kind notice that the funds of large tax payers have been blocked as refunds are delayed on account of the above-mentioned Instruction. This has aggravated their funds flow crisis leading to working capital crunch. Further, in view of current market scenario, raising additional funds from other sources like banks etc has also become difficult. This has caused undue hardship to most of the assessees.
 
Therefore, we request you to take appropriate steps at the earliest for timely completion of scrutiny assessment in refund cases also, preferably by setting a cut-off date for completion of such assessments. In the alternative, the condition that refund should be granted only after completion of such assessment may be removed.
 
We once again request your early action in this regard and thank you in advance for the same.
 
Warm regards

Yours sincerely
CA. UTTAM PRAKASH AGARWAL