Tax dept gets busy on 15% hike in mop-up target

The proposed target comes sans any amnesty scheme

Income Tax efiling - Ahead of an uphill collection target for the current financial year (FY18), the income tax department has prepared a multi-pronged strategy to achieve 15.7 per cent growth, without any amnesty schemes that provided a buffer last year. There’s also been a reduction in the rate for the lowest income slab.

The strategy includes litigation management, disposal of high-value cases, scaling up of searches and seizures, strengthening of systems and investigation teams, and tying with global data mining companies for information gathering.

The income tax return department has a collection target of Rs 9.8 lakh crore for 2017-18, up 15.7 per cent, compared with growth of 14.3 per cent in 2016-17. The rate on annual income between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh has been cut to five per cent from the earlier 10 per cent.

Tax dept gets busy on 15% hike in mop-up target

"The compliance rate has shown an improvement after demonetisation, which will also facilitate higher collection. Litigation management, arrears recovery, information gathering and enforcement action will be the top areas of focus," said a senior official.

The commissioner (appeals) has been asked to expedite clearance of high value tax filing cases of Rs 50 crore and above. "We want such cases to be decided early. If the sum is to be freed, take a decision early. If it needs to be recovered, that too we should know early, to devise a strategy," said the official.

The number of surveys and searches has been scaled up from the beginning of the year. "People know that black (undisclosed) money will not be tolerated any more. So, we expect an improvement in the compliance rate," added the official.

Advance tax paid by individuals was 40 per cent higher in the financial year’s first, June, quarter. This could be an after-impact of the demonetisation of high value currency, with more non-corporates recording higher incomes in their books of account. E-filing of returns up to June for 2016-17 grew by 18 per cent, suggesting that more people regularised their unaccounted income............ read more

Live Markets, Live BSE & NSE quotes, latest news, breaking news, political news, analysis and opinion on markets, companies, industry, economy, policy, banking and personal finance news and more.