Circular No. 468

What it does

Requires the estate duty discharge certificate to be issued without waiting for an application. The Estimates Committee had observed that a discharge certificate was not being issued automatically after an assessment under the Estate Duty Act was finalised even where no duty was found payable or the duty had been fully paid. The Board decides that the certificate should be issued along with the assessment order where no duty is payable, and where the assessment results in a demand, after the duty is fully collected, in both cases without requiring an application from the accountable person under section 67. It notes that section 67 does not prohibit issue of a certificate without an application; it only requires that where an application is made, the certificate shall be issued.

Why it was issued

On the Estimates Committee's observation that certificates were not being issued automatically once the assessment was over and nothing remained payable.

Who it reaches

Accountable persons under the Estate Duty Act awaiting a discharge certificate
Purchasers and transferees dealing with property of a deceased's estate
Assistant Controllers making estate duty assessments

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.67	no counterpart recorded

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

SECTION 67 l CERTIFICATE OF PAYMENT OF ESTATE DUTY
1554. Instructions for issuance of discharge certificate along with assessment order in cases where no duty is payable/where assessment has resulted in demand, it should be issued after duty is collected
1. It has been observed by the Estimates Committee that a discharge certificate is not issued automatically after the assessment under the Estate Duty Act has been finalised even though no duty is found payable or the duty payable has been fully paid.
2. The Board have considered the observations made by the Estimates Committee and have decided that the discharge certificates should be issued along with the assessment order in cases where no duty is payable. Where, however, the assessment has resulted in demand of estate duty, the discharge certificate should be issued after the duty is fully collected without the requirement of an application in this behalf from the accountable person under section 67.
3. It may be noted that section 67 does not prohibit the issue of a certificate without an application and only enjoins that wherever an application is made the certificate shall be issued.
Circular : No. 353 [F. No. 309/72/82-ED], dated 2-2-1983.

What to watch

This is an instruction under the Estate Duty Act, 1953, not the Income-tax Act.
The text signs off as Circular No. 353 dated 2 February 1983, which does not match the circular heading and date this record is filed under; write from the text.
Where a demand is raised, the certificate follows full collection of the duty, not the assessment order.
The accountable person's right to apply under section 67 is unaffected; the circular removes the need to apply, not the ability to.

Where you meet it

Where a discharge certificate is needed to complete a transfer of estate property and none was issued when the assessment was finalised.

← Circular No. 469 · Circular No. 467 →

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.

What this is