ITD (WB & Sikkim) invites empanelment of Cost Accountants u/s 142(2A) 2024-26

ITD (West Bengal & Sikkim), invites empanelment of Cost Accountants u/s 142(2A) for FY 2024-2026.

The Income Tax Department (West Bengal & Sikkim), Patna has issued a notice inviting applications from Cost Accountants for empanelment u/s 142(2A) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 for the period beginning from 01/05/2024 to 31/03/2026.

The Finance Act, 2023, has amended the sub-section (2A) of section 142 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) to provide that If, at any stage of the proceedings before him, the Assessing Officer, having regard to the nature and complexity of the accounts, volume of the accounts, doubts about the correctness of the accounts, multiplicity of transactions in the accounts or specialised nature of business activity of the assessee, and the interests of the revenue, is of the opinion that it is necessary so to do, he may, with the previous approval of the Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, direct the assessee to get the inventory valued by a cost accountant, nominated by the Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner in this behalf and to furnish a report of such inventory valuation in the prescribed form duly signed and verified by such cost accountant and setting forth such particulars, as may be prescribed, and such other particulars as the Assessing Officer may require.

Minimum eligibility criteria for empanelment u/s 142(2A) are as under:

(1) The applicant should be a reputed partnership firm or a proprietary concern or a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), having its office in the area(s) falling within the territorial jurisdiction of Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Bihar & Jharkhand), Patna, and, primarily engaged in the profession of cost accountancy and cost auditing having a staff/Article strength of at least 3 (other than Cost Accountants), and a minimum of 2 Cost Accountants working continuously with the applicant for at least last one year (including partners/proprietor) as on 31/03/2024;

(2) The applicant should be having at least one office located in the territorial jurisdiction of Pr. Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, WB & Sikkim. 

(3) The applicant should have filed returns of income regularly up to AY 2023-24 and the gross professional receipts of the applicant exclusively from professional services like Cost Consultancy/Cost Audits/Internal Audits/Accountancy exclusively declared therein should not be less than Rs. 15 lakhs in any two out of the last five preceding financial years, i.e., from 2018-19 to 2022-23;

(4) The applicant should have have Cost Accountancy/ Cost auditing/ Internal Audit/ Insolvency Professional experience of minimum period of 5 years as on 31/03/2023.

(5) The applicant should have audited Cost Records of at least one business entity having turnover of Rs. 50 crore or more in any two out of the last five preceding financial years i.e. from 2018-19 to 2022-23

(6) No prosecution should have been pending / charged under Chapter XXII of the Income Tax Act or under any other statute against the firm or any of the partners or the Proprietary concern as the case may be. 

(7) The applicant should not have been facing any investigation/inquiry for tax evasion or for any other crime on the date of making the application.

(8) The applicant should not have been charged with having indulged in any professional misconduct and no complaint under section 21 of the Cost and Work Accountants Act, 1959 for any irregularity should have been filed against the applicant by the Income Tax Department;

Terms and conditions:

(1) Remuneration including expenses of and incidental to any special inventory valuation shall be decided on a case to case basis in accordance with Rule 14B of the Income Tax Rules, 1962, and shall be paid by the Central Government/Income Tax Department.

(2) The empanelment of Cost Accountants shall be made at the discretion of the Income Tax Department and the decision made shall be final. Apart from the aforementioned minimum eligibility criteria; the Income Tax Department reserves the right t o consider other relevant factors/inputs/feedbacks etc. while finalizing the list of empanelment of Cost Accountants.

(3) The applicant with regard to the fulfillment of requirements stated at clause (5), {6} and (7) of Para ‘A: The ‘minimum eligibility criteria’ of Notice, shall furnish an affidavit on non-judicial stamp paper of value of Rs. 100 duly notarized by the Notary Public.

Instructions for submission of Applications:

Cost Accountant firms/proprietary concerns fulfilling the above criteria shall submit duly signed application form with complete address, contact number, e-mail ID along-with an original affidavit and other enclosures as mentioned above to the office of the Assistant CIT (HQ)(Technical), 1″ Floor, Aaykar Bhavan, P-7, Chowringhee Square, Kolkata-700 069. The form shall be signed by the proprietor in the case of sale proprietary concern or by all the partners in case of a firm/LLP along-with their seal and membership number

Last date for submission of application is 5:00 PM on 15/04/2024. The duly completed applications received between the date of publication of this notice till the due date i.e. 15/04/2024 will only be considered.

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