I-T, Centre to share data to crackdown on shell cos

To curb the menace of shell firms, corporate affairs ministry and income-tax department has signed a memorandum for exchange of data between them.

Now, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and corporate affairs ministry will share data and information on an automatic and regular basis.

“It will enable sharing of specific information such as Permanent Account Number (PAN) data in respect of corporates, Income Tax returns (ITRs) of corporates, financial statements filed with the Registrar by corporates, returns of allotment of shares, audit reports and statements of financial transactions (SFT) received from banks relating to corporates,” said finance ministry.

It will ensure that both MCA and CBDT have seamless PAN-CIN (Corporate Identity Number) and PAN-DIN (Director Identity Number) linkage for regulatory purposes. The information shared will pertain to both Indian corporates as well as foreign corporates operating in India.

In addition to regular exchange of data, CBDT and MCA will also exchange with each other, on request, any information available in their respective databases, for the purpose of carrying out scrutiny, inspection, investigation and prosecution.

The MoU comes into force from the date it was signed and is an ongoing initiative of MCA and CBDT, which are already collaborating for near real time allotment of PAN and TAN also at the time of Incorporation of companies itself.

A Data Exchange Steering Group also has been constituted for the initiative, which will meet periodically to review the data exchange status and take steps to further improve the effectiveness of the two agencies.