Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 18: Chamber of Commerce and Industry today discussed the surveys and raids conducted by the Income Tax Department in the recent past in a meeting held under the chairmanship of its president Y V Sharma.
Mr Sharma, while referring to the statement of Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Amritsar, who had visited Jammu on October 29, made it clear that Chamber neither holds any brief for any tax evader nor does it have any doubts about the duties, obligations or the powers of the Income Tax Department.
The Chamber had always called upon its members to come up with voluntary disclosure of their tax liabilities and to pay their due taxes well in time as the State revenues were oxygen that was essential for welfare of nation. “However, there was a strong resentment among the members about the timing and tenor of the statement of the Chief Commissioner”, he said.
On the basis of their experience about the surveys / searches / raids conducted in Jammu, the members felt that these actions created atmosphere of terror and harassment. The surveys and searches were conducted up to late in the night or early morning, depriving the citizens of their fundamental right to have peaceful sleep, they said, adding “even the traders were coerced to surrender so called undisclosed income under threats of dire consequences”.
Without raising their fingers on any one and doubting the integrity of anyone involved in such exercises, the members opined that such coercion set some unhealthy trends. Moreover, such activities of the tax officials were in contravention of express directives of the Government, the Human Rights Commissions and the Courts.
They welcomed the statement of the Chief Commissioner about non-discrimination against any particular region but differed with his remarks about equal treatment to all the regions of the State. “According to the Chief Commissioner, the situation in the entire State was being closely watched for search/survey actions, but the ground reality was that one region was being treated as a soft target for repeated victimization. The history of the surveys / searches / raids conducted in the two regions in the past ten years was glaring testimony to this reality”, they said.
Y V Sharma, while appreciating some of the positive notes in the Chief Commissioner’s statement, suggested a different approach for augmenting tax collections. He was of the view that surveys/searches/ raids should be the last resort in tax collection process and said, “some of the steps which can yield rich dividends are awareness programmes to persuade the taxpayers to pay their taxes honestly in time, frequent interactions between the tax authorities and the tax payers, creating a business friendly atmosphere by the tax authorities, treating the businessmen and the industrialists (who are the creators of wealth and employment and supported the Government through payment of taxes) with due respect and dignity, and creating a culture of civilized behavior in the Tax Department.
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