The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has presented the budget for the year 2024-25 before the parliament today. The minister has proposed a 90 days time limit to reply to notice under The Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 ( the Benami Act ) .
Here are the notable changes introduced to the time limits given under Section 24 of the Benami Act through the new budget:
According to Section 24 (1) of the Benami Act, If an initiating officer has enough reasons to believe that a person is a benamidar in respect of a property, he may, after recording reasons in writing, issue a notice to the person to show cause within the time specified in the notice as to why the property should not be treated as benami property. By virtue of Section 24(2) a copy of such notice should also be sent to the beneficiary owner along with the benamidar if the beneficiary’s identity is known. The new budget has proposed a time limit of three months for a reply notice to such a notice by the initiating officer through the introduction of a new subsection, 2A.
Through the new proposal, after subsection (2) of section 24, subsection (2A) shall be inserted, which explains that if a notice is issued to a benamidar or the beneficiary owner to whom a copy of the notice was sent by virtue section 24(2), shall furnish the explanation or submissions, if any, within the period specified in the given notice or period as extended by the initiating officer, not exceeding three months from the end of the month in which the said notice is issued.
As per Section 24(3) of the Benami Act, If the initiating officer is of the opinion that the property held benami may be alienated during the period specified in the notice, The property may be provisionally attached with the previous approval of the approving authority in a manner as prescribed, within a period not exceeding ninety days from the last day of the month where the notice was issued. The new budget proposes to replace this time limit of ninety days with four months.
Section 24(4) of the Benami Act says if a provisional attachment of property was made by virtue of section 24(3), the initiating officer shall pass an order either continuing or revoking the provisional attachment within a period not exceeding ninety days. The new proposal directs to replace this time limit with four months.
According to Section 24(5) of the Benami Act, if the initiating officer passes an order continuing the provisional attachment, he shall within a time period of fifteen days from the date of attachment draw up a statement of the case and refer it to the adjudicating authority. The FM has proposed to change this time limit from fifteen days to one month.
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