IT surveys in low disclosure areas to tackle tax evasion, says official

The aggregate of Direct and Indirect Taxes collected over the last decade has gone up three-fold from ₹11 lakh crore to ₹33 lakh crore, thanks largely due to the expanding tax payer base and higher voluntary compliance, says official

The Income Tax Department has tasked officers in Puducherry to carry out surveys in low-disclosure areas to augment collection and address the issue of tax evasion, R. Ravichandran, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, said on Tuesday.

In his key-note address at ‘TDS Connect’, an outreach programme for officers co-hosted by the IT Department and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-Puducherry, Mr. Ravichandran said these surveys, which were aligned with the larger sensitisation efforts, were designed not only to ensure that default payments are recovered but also to sure that there was no evasion.

Pointing out that several areas to augment collection were discussed during a review meeting with officers, Mr. Ravichandran said as part of measures it had been decided that wherever disclosure has not been adequate, IT teams would be conducting a survey operation to make sure that tax arrears are recovered and curb tax evasion.

Tax being the basic unit of revenue for development, security and welfare of the people, the message sought to be underscored is that tax paying and collection are integral to nation-building and that tax evasion can come back to hurt the offender, the IT official said.

In addition to tax payer facilitation, the focus of the government is on making tax evasion more and more difficult. On the deterrence front, the Commissionerate collects about 350 pieces of information pertaining to transactions, even if it is high value cash remittance. Besides, there is a tax information exchange agreements with 150 countries. In fact, groupings such as the G7 are committed to phase out tax havens, the official said.

“There is no virtually place for tax evaders to hide anywhere in the world”, he said.

Noting that Puducherry region has been doing well on the tax collection front, Mr. Ravichandran said against a target of ₹600 crore, 60% of the target (₹360 crore) had already been met this fiscal.