New Delhi: Former CBDT chairman K V Chowdary has been given a three-month extension as the advisor to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money.
The Finance Ministry today issued orders for the extension of the senior IRS officer following which his term will now end on July 31. He was first appointed advisor to the high- powered panel in November, 2014 for a period of six months which had ended on Thursday.
Chowdary, an expert on tax issues and financial investigations, has been assisting the SIT and its two heads, Chairman Justice (retd) M B Shah and Vice-Chairman Justice (retd) Arijit Pasayat in conducting its operations along with various probe agencies on its panel.
The 1978-batch IRS officer, after serving in the Income Tax department for three decades, retired in October last year as the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy making body of the tax department.
"The orders for extending the tenure of the officer for another three months have been issued today. The SIT is in the middle of preparing its latest report which is expected to be filed in the Supreme Court on or before May 12," a senior Finnace Ministry officer said.
The SIT has heads or senior representatives of 11 different investigative or enforcement agencies on its panel.
The panel was formed by the apex court and notified by the government last year to combat the menace of illegal assets stashed abroad by way of fastening the probe in these cases, suggesting better policy measures and ensuring a strict regime in this regard.
The officer has had stints as the director general of I-T (Investigations) in the national capital where he headed a number of high-profile tax probes, including those relating to the 2G spectrum allocation case and the HSBC Geneva taxpayers list along with a number of cases dealing with tax evasion.
The officer is also credited with initiating a host of new steps to enhance and fine-tune the intelligence and investigations capabilities of the tax department.
