Income Tax Department on Tuesday said e-mails sent to assessees to seek
clarification on refund should not be construed as harassment.
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy making body
for personal income tax and corporate tax, has said that
computer-generated emails have been sent to almost 1.72 lakh assessees.
These include all classes of taxpayers – from individuals to HUF to
firms, big or small companies including start-up. This means no one has
been singled out, it said.
These emails are auto-generated under section 245 of the I-T Act in
refund cases where there is any outstanding demand payable by the
assessee. In case the outstanding demand has already been paid by the
taxpayer or it has been stayed by the higher tax authorities, the
taxpayers are requested through these mails to provide the status update
so that while issuing the refund, these amounts are not held back and
their refunds are released forthwith.
