Warning the defaulters of penalconsequences, the Income Tax Department today asked assesses,who pay taxes on the basis of self-assessment, to clear theirdues by March 31.
The Revenue Department said 73,388 people have defaultedon payments of self-assessment tax aggregating to Rs 3,859crore.
"Filing a return without paying the admitted amount oftax that is payable will render such taxpayer an 'assessee indefault' under the provisions of the I-T Act. Such taxpayerswho default in payment of self-assessment tax may invite penalconsequences," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
"Income-tax Department urges all taxpayers who have filedtheir returns in the current financial year and have defaultedon payment of self-assessment tax, to immediately come forwardand pay the due taxes before March 31, 2013," it said.
It further said that in future the tax arrears, in caseof self assessment, should be cleared along with the filing ofreturn.
The revenue department is plugging each and every sourceof revenue to achieve the Rs 5.65 lakh crore mop up targetunder the direct taxes category for this fiscal, whichwill end on March 31.
To check tax evasion, the government has already sent35,000 notices to tax payers who are not filing returns and asimilar number of notices are in process of being issued.