The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified a scheme for centralised processing of statements of tax deducted at source.

Since the Central Processing Cell (CPC) of the income-tax department is the repository of all the information relating to tax deducted at source by various deductors, it will hereafter be the agency of the department competent to correct the clerical and arithmetical mistakes in the statements of tax deducted filed by the deductors suo motu as well as on application made by the deductors.

Accordingly, the deductor shall file correction statements to the CPC and not to the jurisdictional assessing officer. The assessing officer of the CPC shall be competent to issue notice of demand if warranted on the basis of corrections made as well as to issue refund where warranted. But before granting refund, he will have to check with the jurisdictional assessing officer to find out if any tax or other amounts are due from him to the department.

Appeals against the order of the assessing officer of the central processing unit, however, shall lie only with the jurisdictional commissioner of income tax. It has been clarified that no personal attendance is required before the CPC. This regime is at par with the scheme of online returns which are processed to the extent permitted by structured software, with appeals lying with jurisdictional commissioners who would not be bogged down by structured software.

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