Income-Tax Rules, 1962 Amended: CBDT Tweaks Rules To Ease Authentication Of Electronic Records

Taxpayers can now use electronic verification code (EVC) as a way of authenticating electronic records submitted through the registered account.

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New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has amended Income-tax Rules, 1962 to make the process of authentication of electronic records in faceless assessment proceedings easier.

According to the new amendments the simplified way of authenticating electronic records submitted through the registered account of the taxpayers in the Income-tax Department’s portal for the purpose of 144B(7)(i)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act’) i.e. using electronic verification code (EVC), will now be available to the category of persons that were earlier exempted.

'Under the existing provisions of section 144B(7)(i)(b) of the Act, this simplified process of authentication by EVC is not available to certain persons (such as companies, tax audit cases, etc.) and they are mandatorily required to authenticate the electronic records by digital signature', said the Ministry of Finance in a statement.

'In order to provide the benefit of the simplified process of authentication by EVC to these persons, it has been decided to extend the simplified process of authentication by EVC to these persons also,' it added. 

The statement also says that legislative amendments for this purpose will be proposed in due course.

Aside from which the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has also permitted the filing of tax settlement applications for a period upto January 31, by September 30, which comes as a relief to the taxpayers. 

The CBDT has decided that relief will only be applicable to taxpayers who were eligible to file application for settlement on January 31, 2021 for the assessment years for which the application is sought to be filed (relevant assessment years). The taxpayers would also require to fulfill another condition that all their relevant assessment proceedings are pending as on the date of filing the application for settlement.