Rather for tightening noose on tax evaders

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 30: In a landmark achievement, the Commercial Taxes Department (CTD) is all set to register all-time high revenue of Rs 5100 crore during the current financial year which is almost three times increase against revenue of Rs 1823 crore in 2008-09, when the present Government took over.
This was stated by the Minister for Finance and Ladakh Affairs Abdul Rahim Rather at a high level meeting convened here today to review the performance of the Commercial Taxes Department, Jammu division.
The Minister said that the revenue realised by the CTD during last fiscal was to the tune of Rs 4348 crore, adding that “I have been assured by the senior officers of the department that revenue of Rs. 5100 crore will be achieved by the end of current financial year. He said there has been a contribution of all the three regions of the state viz Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh in this stupendous revenue growth.
Maintaining that state’s economic performance largely depends upon efficiency of the Commercial Taxes Department (CTD), the Minister has called for an effective monitoring mechanism to plug tax pilferages optimally, adding that tax evaders should in no way get scot free. He urged for a concerted effort for increasing tax revenue, adding that a sustained recovery drive should be taken against the wilful defaulters.  He asked the concerned officers and field agencies to get hold of all tax evaders without any fear and favour, besides pursuing stay cases pending disposal in different courts.
The Commissioner Commercial Taxes, Kifayat Rizvi, Addl. Commissioner CTD Jammu P. I. Khateeb, Additional Commissioner Finance Showkat Aijaz and all Deputy Commissioners of CTD Jammu Div. were present in the meeting.
Mr. Rather enjoined upon the officers of CTD to set high standards of public relations while dealing with the traders and tax payers, adding that in no case any genuine tax payer should feel unnecessarily harassed. He said the performance of every employee in the CTD department is being closely monitored as the department has a crucial role in the state’s economic scenario. ” Dead wood shall not be allowed to continue in this important department”, Mr. Rather added. He said holding of review meetings of CTD has a primary objective to gauge the performance of every officer in his respective circle.
In a power point presentation about the achievements of CTD, Jammu Div. it was given out that against a target of Rs.3454.78 crore revenue for the current financial year, the achievement upto ending October has been of the order of Rs 2151 crore which is 12.27% more than the revenue of Rs 1915 crore achieved during the corresponding period of the last financial year.

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