Circular No. 607 — Clarification regarding discontinuance of Form No. 16B

What this is

Circular No. 607 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 4 July 1991. Its subject is Clarification regarding discontinuance of Form No. 16B.

This is a clarification. The Board is stating how it reads a provision. That reading binds the department; it does not bind a court, and where the section says otherwise the section wins.

What it does

Extends the acceptance of the old Form No. 16 to 31 December 1991. Circular No. 605 dated 12 June 1991 had allowed Assessing Officers, because of the shortage of the new Form No. 16B, to accept certificates in the old Form No. 16 for deductions under sections 194A, 194B, 194BB, 194C, 194E, 195 and 196A for assessment year 1991-92. The shortage continuing despite measures to make Form No. 16B available, the Board decides that certificates in the old Form No. 16 may be accepted in lieu of Form No. 16B for tax deducted up to 31 December 1991, and that field officers may sell existing stocks of Form No. 16 till that date. The old form serves only for the categories of deduction for which Form No. 16B has been prescribed, and both forms remain in force, the deductor being free to use either.

Why it was issued

The shortage of the new Form No. 16B was still continuing despite the measures taken to make it available in adequate numbers at all places.

Who it reaches

Deductors under sections 194A, 194B, 194BB, 194C, 194E, 195 and 196A
Payees claiming credit on certificates issued on the old form
Assessing Officers deciding whether to accept such a certificate
Field officers holding stocks of the old form

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.194A	s.2, s.393, s.400, s.402

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.

Clarification regarding discontinuance of Form No. 16B

1. Reference is invited to Board’s Circular No. 605, dated 12-6-1991, conveying the Board’s decision that in view of the shortage of the new Form No. 16B, the Assessing Officers may accept the TDS certificates in the old Form No. 16 also in respect of deductions of tax at source under sections 194A, 194B, 194BB, 194C, 194E, 195 and 196A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for the assessment year 1991-92.
2. Despite measures taken to make Form No. 16B available in adequate numbers at all places, the shortage of these forms is still continuing. The Board have, therefore, decided that TDS certificates issued in the old Form No. 16 may also be accepted by the Assessing Officers in lieu of Form No. 16B in respect of tax deducted at source up to 31st December, 1991. Simultaneously, the Field Officers may also sell the existing stock of Form No. 16 lying with them, till 31-12-1991.
3. It may be clarified here that the old Form No. 16 shall be accepted only for the categories of TDS for which the new Form No. 16B has been prescribed. Form No. 16B shall also remain in force along with old Form No. 16 and the tax-deductors can use either of the two forms.
Circular : No. 607, dated 4-7-1991.

What to watch

The concession runs to tax deducted up to 31 December 1991, and was afterwards carried further by a later circular — Circular No. 625 dated 12 February 1992 took it to certificates issued up to 31 March 1992.
The old form is good only for the categories for which Form No. 16B was prescribed, not for deduction generally.
The extension is a stop-gap for a stationery shortage, not a change in the prescribed form.
Both forms and this whole certificate regime have long since been superseded, as the text's own dates show.

Where you meet it

Where credit for tax deducted in that period is refused because the certificate produced is on the old form.

What it names

Forms it names. Form No. 16, Form No. 16B

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Notification No. 27/2023 [F. No. 370142/11/2023-TPL] / SO 2189(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 16 May 2023
Notification No. 110/2021 [F. No. 275/27/2021-IT(B)] / SO 3815(E) — Ministry of Finance 17 September 2021
Notification No. 26/2019 [F. No. 275/15/2018-IT(B)]/SO 1399(E) — -, -. ~ "Bo ito ~o 33004 99 REGD. NO. D. L.-33004/99 ([he <5o':t.ette of 3ndio . 1251] No. 1251] 3ffiTmruT EXTRAORDINARY 20 March 2019
Notification No. 6/2018 — TDS deduction under section 194A of the income tax act 1961 in case of senior citizens 6 December 2018
Notification No. 65/2016 [F. No. 275/28/2015-IT (B)] / SO 2616(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 5 August 2016
Notification: 4 Date of Issue: 24/1/2013 — [To BE Published in Gazette of INDIA, Extraordinary, Part II 24 January 2013

← Circular No. 608 · Circular No. 606 →

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.