Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday urged income tax officials to concentrate on recovering tax from “non-filers and stop-filers” in a bid to widen the tax base and increase collections.
“Tax officials should target non-filers and stop-filers to widen the tax base and tax collections,” Chidambaram said while speaking to senior officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The government has set a target of `6.68 lakh crore collection in direct taxes in 2013-’14, up from last year’s Rs 5.65 lakh crore.
The Finance Minister kicked off the two-day national conference of income tax officials who will be brainstorming on ways to widen tax net and better revenue collection. He stressed that utilisation of modern technology would improve revenue collection more than any other method.
“We are in favour of intelligence and technology-based tax collection system which is both non-intrusive and non-evasive,” Chidambaram said.
He also said that the CBDT had assured him that not only would they meet the tax target for this fiscal but all try to better it. The CBDT has identified 12 lakh assesses and has dispatched letters to 1.75 lakh tax defaulters.
Chidambaram urged the IT officials to “make quality assessments and issue quality orders along with speed”. The Cabinet has approved the proposal to create 20,751 additional posts in the IT depart, which includes 1,349 positions in the IRS cadre and 19,402 additional posts in non-IRS cadres.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day the Income Tax Department exuded confidence that it can mop up Rs 6.68 lakh crore in direct taxes this financial year to register 19 per cent growth.