Section 55B
Power of Collector to access and to obtain information
(1)
The Collector and any officer authorised by him in that behalf —
(a)
shall at all times have full and free access to all buildings, places, documents, computers, computer programs and computer software (whether installed in a computer or otherwise) for any of the purposes of this Act;
(b)
shall have access to any information, code or technology which has the capability of retransforming or unscrambling encrypted data contained or available to such computers into readable and comprehensive format or text for any of the purposes of this Act;
(c)
shall be entitled —
(i)
without fee or reward, to inspect, copy or make extracts from any such document, computer, computer program, computer software or computer output;
Income Tax
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(ii)
at any reasonable time to inspect and check the operation of any computer, device, apparatus or material which is or has been in use in connection with anything to which this section applies;
(d)
may take possession of any such document, computer, device, apparatus, material, computer program or computer software where in his opinion —
(i)
the inspection, checking, copying thereof or extraction therefrom cannot reasonably be performed without taking possession;
(ii)
any such items may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
(iii)
any such items may be required as evidence in proceedings for an offence against this Act or in proceedings for the recovery of any tax or penalty, or in proceedings by way of an appeal against an assessment;
(e)
shall be entitled to require —
(i)
the person by whom or on whose behalf the computer is or has been used, or any person having charge of or otherwise concerned with the operation of the computer, device, apparatus or material to provide the Collector or officer with such reasonable assistance as he may require for the purposes of this section;
(ii)
any person in possession of decryption information to grant him access to such decryption information necessary to decrypt data required for the purpose of this section.
(2)
No person shall by virtue of this section be obliged to disclose any particulars as to which he is under any statutory obligation to observe secrecy.
Income Tax 92
(3)
The Collector may by notice require any person to give orally, in writing or through the electronic service, as may be required, all such information concerning his or any other person’s income, assets or liabilities as may be required of him by the Collector for the purposes of this Act.
(4)
In this section, “computer” and “computer output” have the same meanings as in the Computer Misuse Act (Chapter 194).