  We critically reexamine the bosonization-debosonization procedure for systems
including certain types of localized features (although more general scenarios
are possible). By focusing on the case of a tunneling junction out of
equilibrium, we show that the conventional approach gives results that are not
consistent with the exact solution of the problem even at the qualitative
level. We identify inconsistencies that can adversely affect the results of all
types of calculations. We subsequently show a way to avoid these and proceed
consistently. The extended framework we develop here should be widely
applicable.
