Rule 229 — Production of certificate under section 420. Made under s.420 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Rule 229 gives effect to Section 420 of the Income-tax Act, 2025. A rule cannot go beyond the section it serves: where the two seem to differ, the section governs.
Rule 229 imposes a single duty. Any person leaving India shall, at the request of any Customs Officer, produce to him for examination the tax clearance certificate or the exemption certificate, as the case may be.
The duty is triggered by the Customs Officer's request, not by departure alone, and the document to be produced is whichever of the two certificates applies to that person. The rule says nothing about who must obtain a certificate, how one is obtained, or what happens if it is not produced; those are matters for section 420 and the provisions around it. The published text of the rule carries an omission marker at the start of the operative sentence, so what remains in force is the production obligation itself.
A tax clearance certificate is only useful if it is checked, and the point at which it can be checked is departure. The rule puts the certificate in front of the officer who is already examining the traveller, and makes production a duty of the person leaving rather than a search the officer must conduct.
The obligation is conditional on a request, so a traveller is not required to volunteer the certificate at the counter; but once a Customs Officer asks, production is mandatory and is for examination, not merely for display. The rule contemplates two documents and treats them as alternatives — the tax clearance certificate or the exemption certificate, as the case may be — so a person holding an exemption certificate answers the request with that. Who needs either certificate in the first place is decided by section 420, not here, and the rule does not create any additional class of person who must obtain one.
A person is departing from India and holds an exemption certificate. At the airport a Customs Officer asks to see the certificate under section 420. The person must produce the exemption certificate for examination; producing a tax clearance certificate is not required of him, because the rule requires the one applicable to him, as the case may be.
A traveller meets it at the point of departure, when a Customs Officer asks for the certificate. Anyone who has no obligation to hold one under section 420 never meets the rule at all.
Any person leaving India shall, at the request of any Customs Officer, produce to him for examination, the tax clearance certificate or the exemption certificate, as the case may be.