Dated: October 24, 2019

To,

All Principal Chief Commissioners of Tax

Subject: Requests for Exchange of Information from field offices for time barring assessment cases - regarding.

The undersigned is directed to state that a large number of Exchange of Information (EOI) requests in time - barring assessment cases are received in the EOI cell. FT & TR Division just before the time barring date. As a result, it becomes difficult to process and forward such requests after due scrutiny to the Foreign Competent Authorities in time. Further, in many cases the EOI requests are not properly drafted/ prepared and are required to be modified by the field officers to meet the international standard on exchange of information.

2. As stipulated in the Central Action Plan 2019 - 20. EOI requests in time barring cases should be made one month before the time barring date. Further, where time available is less than one month, requests should only be sent with the approval of the concerned CCIT/ DGIT (Inv.). Therefore, it is requested that the officers concerned may be directed to adhere to the above timelines as prescribed in the Central Action Plan 2019 - 20 and EOI requests in all eases which are getting time barred on 31 December 2019 may be sent latest by 30 November 2019. In cases where the time available is less than one month, the approval of the concerned CCIT/ DGIT (Inv.) may be expressly indicated in the EOI request being sent to the EOI cell, FT & TR Division.

3. This issues with approval of Chairman, CBDT.

(Amrita Singh Ahuja)
Under Secretary (FT & TR-IV) (II)