35,000 tax notices on way; FM asks defaulters to clear dues

35,000 tax notices on way; FM asks defaulters to clear dues

The Revenue Department todayissued notices to 35,000 assessees for failure to file I-Treturns even as Finance Minister P Chidambaram entreateddefaulters to pay taxes and seek penalty waiver.

"A polite letter was sent to 35,000 such persons in thefirst lot. Two weeks ago we have sent letters, another lot of35,000 persons. Today letters are being issued to a third lotof 35,000 persons," he told reporters here.

The Minister assured that the I-T department would take abenign view of assessees volunteering to file returns andclear their dues and interest.

"The tax authorities can take a benign view and waive thepenalty. They have done so in numerous cases in the past. Thisis your opportunity to file your returns, pay your tax andinterest, if any, and apply for waiver of penalty," he saidurging the assessees to pay advance tax by tomorrow.

The last date for paying the final instalment of advancetax is March 15 for corporates as well as individuals.

Chidambaram said the steps taken by the tax department tocheck evasion is reaping results as 10,000 assessees, of the70,000 to whom notices were sent, have disclosed their incomeand filed taxes on receiving the letter.

"These letters have had salutary effect. Over 10,000recipients, of the first two lots of letters, have filed theirreturns and paid their tax dues," Chidambaram said.

The revenue department is tapping each and every sourceof revenue to achieve the Rs 5.65 lakh crore collection targetunder the direct taxes category for this fiscal that ends onMarch 31.

Chidambaram expressed the hope that more and more assessees would file their returns within the due date and paytheir advance tax.

"To those who have not filed their I-T returns so far,either for current year or for previous years, I have onesimple message -- It behoves you to file returns, it behovesyou to pay advance tax by tomorrow," he said.

He said 13.5 lakh returns have been filed betweenFebruary 10 and March 10, an increase of over 15 per cent over10.81 lakh returns filed during the similar period last year.

Till March 10, 2013, 1.77 crore returns have been filedrepresenting an increase of 35 per cent. As on March 10, 2012,a total of 1.35 crore returns had been e-filed, he added.

"I am inferring that our approach is paying dividend. Iam happy with the change of attitude and I hope many thousandsmore will voluntary file their returns and pay the tax dues,especially the Advance Tax tomorrow," Chidambaram said.

The Minister said he had introduced provisions forimproving compliance for payment of Service Tax in his Budget.

"It is my hope that a very large proportion of 10 lakhregistered assessees who have not filed returns and who do notfile returns currently will take advantage of thisopportunity," Chidambaram said.

The government's policy, he emphasised is clarity in taxlaws, a stable tax regime and non-adversarial taxadministration, a fair mechanism for dispute resolution and anindependent judiciary.

Consistent with this approach, he said both CBDT and CBEChave been persuading the tax paying community to voluntarilycomply with tax laws and pay the taxes due.

"There are many potential tax payers who have not filedreturns so far for any assessment year. There are many whohave stopped filing returns. These are described as non filersand stop filers. Our effort is to persuade them to file theirreturns," he added.

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