Circular No. 31/2016

What it does

Gives the Commissioner of Income-tax, Centralised Processing Centre, Bengaluru concurrent powers and functions over declarations under section 183 of the Finance Act, 2016 that are furnished electronically under digital signature, and deems that Commissioner to be the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner for the purposes of section 186 of that Act in respect of such declarations. It continues the Board's earlier circular of 25 May 2016 on the same subject.

Why it was issued

The circular is issued in continuation of the Board's earlier circular, to place electronically filed digitally signed declarations with the Centralised Processing Centre.

Who it reaches

Declarants under the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 filing electronically with a digital signature
The Commissioner of Income-tax, Centralised Processing Centre, Bengaluru
Jurisdictional Commissioners who would otherwise handle these declarations

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.183	no counterpart recorded
s.186	no counterpart recorded

The instrument, as the Board published it

The department publishes this one only as a PDF, so the words below were read out of that PDF by machine. That reading can carry its own mistakes — a misread number, a broken line. Check the signed document before you rely on a figure in it.

Circular No.31 of 2016
F.No.142/8/2016-TPL
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
***
New Delhi, dated 30th August, 2016
In continuation to Circular No. 19 of 2016 dated 25th May, 2016, the
Commissioner of Income-tax, Centralized Processing Centre, Bengaluru,
headquartered at Bengaluru, Karnataka shall exercise the concurrent powers and
functions in respect of the declaration referred to in section 183 of the Finance Act,
2016 which has been furnished electronically under digital signature and shall also
be deemed to be the Principal Commissioner or the Commissioner for the purposes
of section 186 of the Finance Act, 2016 in respect of such declaration.
(R. Lakshmi Narayanan)
Under Secretary to the Government of India
1. OSD to Secretary (Revenue).
2. The Chairperson, Members and all other officers in CBDT of the rank of Under
Secretary and above.
3. All Pr. Chief Commissioners/ Pr. Director General of Income-tax – with a request
to circulate amongst all officers in their regions/ charges.
4. Pr. DGIT (Systems)/ Pr. DGIT (Vigilance)/ Pr. DGIT (Admn.)/ Pr. DG (NADT)/
Pr. DGIT (L&R).
5. CIT (M&TP), CBDT.
6. Web manager for posting on the departmental website.
7. Guard file.

What to watch

The concurrent jurisdiction reaches only declarations furnished electronically under digital signature — a paper or non-digitally-signed declaration stays where it was.
The powers are concurrent, not exclusive, so the jurisdictional authority is not displaced.
The deeming for section 186 purposes is what allows the Centralised Processing Centre to deal with the declaration end to end.

Where you meet it

When a declaration under the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 was filed online and the question is which authority is to act on it or issue the acknowledgment.

What it names

It mentions. Circular No. 19/2016, Circular No. 31/2016

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. 55/2026 [F. No. 370142/15/2026-TPL] / G.S.R. 241(E) — Ministry of Finance 31 March 2026
Notification No. Notification No. 103/2019 [F. No. 370149/159/2019-TPL]/SO 4455(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 13 December 2019
Notification No. 32/2016 [F.No.142/8/2016-TPL] / SO 1830(E) — To BE Published in the Gazette of INDIA, Extraordinary, Part II, section 3, Sub-section (ii)] 19 May 2016
Circular No. 19/2016 — - Central Board of Direct Taxes 25 May 2016
Circular No. 207 — Whether coparcener of HUF can be regarded as benamidar of HUF and thus obliged to file Form No. 12A in terms of Explanat 24 September 1976

← Circular No. 32/2016 · Circular No. 30/2016 →

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