Text of ITO Section 227B

Reward to whistleblowers.

(1) The Board may sanction reward to whistleblowers in cases of concealment or evasion of income tax, fraud, corruption or misconduct providing credible information leading to such detection of tax.

(2) The Board may, by notification in the official Gazette, prescribe the procedure in this behalf and also specify the apportionment of reward sanctioned under this section for whistleblowers.

(3) The claim for reward by the whistleblower shall be rejected, if—

(a) the information provided is of no value;
[aa) the information is not supported by any evidence;]
(b) the Board already had the information;
(c) the information was available in public records; or
(d) no collection of taxes is made from the information provided from which the Board can pay the reward.

(4) For the purpose of this section, “whistleblower” means a person who reports concealment or evasion of income tax leading to detection or collection of taxes, fraud, corruption or misconduct, to the competent authority having power to take action against the person or an income tax authority committing fraud, corruption, misconduct, or involved in concealment or evasion of taxes.