HYDERABAD: The Income Tax department has set a collection target of Rs 60,485 crore from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the current fiscal (2018-19,) an increase of nearly 22 per cent over the previous year.
The tax collection for the 2017-18 financial year was Rs 49,775 crore. Though Hyderabad has fewer tax-payers’ population compared to other circles, it is one of the top tax collection centres in the country and is the top six in the country in terms of growth rate of tax collection, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana SP Choudhury, said.
While there are 36 lakh assessees, over 8 lakh have filed returns for the first time in 2017-18, the target set for filing new returns for 2018-19 is over 10 lakh. The Hyderabad circle has so far collected 14.8 per cent tax against the national average of 6.8 per cent in this financial year. Singh further said there are more than one crore PAN card holders in AP & TS, which include duplicate, triplicate and multiple card holders also.
“We are using deep dive data analysis technique to identify such multiple card holders and strict action will be taken against them. There is also a provision, that multiple card holders and unused cardholders can surrender their cards to the I-T department,’’ he said.
Replying to a query about employers not remitting Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), he said they would be prosecuted. Speaking about past performance of Hyderabad Circle, 83 properties were attached under the newly introduced Benami Property Transactions Act and notices were issued in 108 cases till June 2018 under the Black Money Act 2015. “We have conducted 38 searches and Rs 40,95 crore seized in 2017-2018. In 2018-19, 11 searches were conducted and Rs 14.28 crore was seized.
The undisclosed income admitted by taxpayers on account of searches in 2017-2018 was Rs 1,166.97 crore and in the present year, it is Rs 285.7 crore. In 2017-2018, 415 surveys were conducted leading to unaccounted income of Rs 589.41 crore. In three cases defaulting assesses were convicted and in seven cases warrants were issued,” Choudhury said.