Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 8: Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is creating on-line data-bank in order to have effective coordination and dissemination of information about each and every Income Tax assessee, which would result into close monitoring of returns and make detection of the defaulters much easier.
This was stated by the Chairperson of the CBDT, Dr Sudha Sharma in an interactive session here this morning after formally inaugurating Aayakar Seva Kendra at Income Tax Office complex.
“The on-line data bank and a new system having many checks and balances would be in vogue within next two years and will immensely help us in having close watch on our assessees”, she said, adding “this system would also help in generating quick information about the defaulters and high-value transactions as close monitoring plays important role in checking tax evasion”.
Stating that tax evasion remains a matter of serious concern for the country, the CBDT Chairperson disclosed that till the month of March over 1.05 lakh letters were issued in the cases of the high value transactions, which were not reflected by the concerned assessees intentionally with the hope that they would go scot free. “But we have not only tracked them but also asked them to explain their position”, she added.
Dr Sharma said that on-line data-bank would also help in minimizing the assessees-taxmen interface. “We are slowly and gradually moving towards a stage where there will be very minimum interface of the assessees with IT Department on the pattern of many other countries and e-filing of the returns was a major step in this direction”, she added.
“We are continuously improving our system in order to provide better facilities to our assessees so that nobody from our department hoodwink them”, she added.
Painting dismal picture about the number of tax payers in the country, the CBDT Chairperson said, “out of 120 crore population of the country we have only 3.50 crore tax payers and this is really a big joke and an issue to be seriously pondered upon”, adding “this is the scenario despite the fact that in India we have fixed Income Tax percentage less than several other countries”.
“Every citizen of the country must fulfill his/her legal obligation of filing returns as per exact income and pay tax accordingly as afterall this is the way to help in development of country”, she said, adding “if we can be generous in making donations during the natural calamities why cannot we pay income tax honestly for the development of the country as the tax which we pay comes back in the shape of developmental funds”.
“We have been leaving no stone unturned to facilitate the payment of taxes in hassle free manner but at the same time we have to ensure that nobody indulges in tax evasion, which amounts to creating hurdles in the development of the country”, Dr Sharma said, adding “in order to overcome the difficulties of the assessees a new portal of the IT Department has come in place. Moreover, in order to reduce the problem of TDS mismatch a new system has been made effective from April 1”.
Describing opening of Aayakar Seva Kendras as an attempt to redress the grievances of the tax payers, she said that till date 132 such Kendras have been opened across the country and 59 more places have been identified where such Kendras would be established shortly.
Earlier, CBDT Chairperson received feedback from the representatives of Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Associated Chamber of Traders Federation, Income Tax Bar Association and Chartered Accountants about the functioning of the IT J&K Circle and any difficulties being faced by them.
The interactive session was attended by Gurpreet Singh, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Amritsar, Surinder Jit Singh, Commissioner of Income Tax Jammu, B B Singh, Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Jammu, S K Aggarwal, Commissioner of Income Tax-II, Amritsar, Y R Saini, Commissioner of Income Tax Bathinda, Darse Samuel, Commissioner of IT Appeals Bathinda, R R Singh, Director of Income Tax (Systems), R K Kakar, Joint Commissioner of Income Tax Range-I, Jammu, Rakesh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax (Hq) Jammu, Rajiv Gubgotra, Assistant Director of Income Tax (Inv), Jammu and Gulzar Ahmed Wani, Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Circle-3, Srinagar.
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