The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked nine, including a deputy commissioner, and two Inspectors of income tax, along with five Chartered Accountants, for allegedly attempting to sabotage the ’Faceless Scheme of Assessment’ of the IT Department, introduced by the Union government, agency sources said on Thursday.
The federal probe agency conducted searches at 18 locations across the country, including Delhi, Mumbai, Thane, West Champaran {Blhar), Bengaluru, Kottayam (Kerala) among other states, in connection with the case, on Thursday.
During the searches, CBI sleuths have recovered incriminating documents, evidence of payment of undue gratification, and some digital electronic evidence in this connection.
Recently, the government introduced a series of futuristic reforms in Direct Tax administration for the benefit of taxpayers and the economy. ‘Faceless Scheme of assessment’ is one such reform where there is no human interface between taxpayers and tax officials.
The scheme is designed in a way that the assessee does not come to know who the appellate officers are. However, to beat this system, a group of CAs with an active assistance and criminal conspiracy with some income tax officials were allegedly disclosing the names of the concerned officers in an unauthorised manner.
According to the probe agency officials, the accused also used sensitive income tax data pertaining to pending assessment or appeal cases, and high refund cases to approach the concerned assessee, or their CAs for pecuniary benefits.
Further investigation is underway in the case, the agency officials said.