Insertion of new section 142A.

34. After section 142 of the Income-tax Act, the following sec‚tion shall be inserted and shall be deemed to have been inserted with effect from the 15th day of November, 1972, namely:ó

ë142A. Estimate by Valuation Officer in certain cases.ó(1) For the purposes of making an assessment or re-assess‚ment under this Act, where an estimate of the value of any in‚vestment referred to in section 69 or section 69B or the value of any bullion, jewellery or other valuable article referred to in section 69A or section 69B is required to be made, the Assessing Officer may require the Valuation Officer to make an estimate of such value and report the same to him.

(2) The Valuation Officer to whom a reference is made under sub-section (1) shall, for the purposes of dealing with such refer‚ence, have all the powers that he has under section 38A of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (27 of 1957).

(3) On receipt of the report from the Valuation Officer, the Assessing Officer may, after giving the assessee an opportunity of being heard, take into account such report in making such assessment or re-assessment:

Provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply in respect of an assessment made on or before the 30th day of Sep‚tember, 2004, and where such assessment has become final and conclusive on or before that date, except in cases where a reas‚sessment is required to be made in accordance with the provisions of section 153A.

Explanation.óIn this section, ìValuation Officerî has the same meaning as in clause (r) of section 2 of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (27 of 1957).í.