Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 16: Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, J&K, Sangeeta Gupta today said that drive for widening of tax base in the State will begin from holy town of Katra on July 20.
Addressing media-persons at Aaykar Bhawan here this morning, Sangeeta Gupta said, “I have decided to lay much-needed focus on widening of tax base by initiating several measures including awareness camps and drive in this regard would begin from Katra on July 20”, adding “widening of tax base is a top priority under the current financial year’s Action Plan framed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes and being monitored by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi”.
The awareness camp would be conducted from 11 am to 5 pm and all the trade and business bodies of the holy town of Katra have been invited, she further said, adding “the officers of the Income Tax Department would make them aware about their legal obligation of filing returns by disclosing the exact income and paying tax accordingly”.
Stating that there is huge gap between the PAN holders and actual income tax assessees filing returns, the Principal Commissio-ner of Income Tax said, “there are many small/medium traders, who are not filing their Income Tax returns and the camp is being organized to motivate them to contribute their bit in nation building by voluntarily filing their returns so that the huge gap between the persons holding PANs and actual assessees filing income tax returns can be minimized”.
In response to a question, she disclosed that Income Tax Department is receiving only 2500 returns from Katra town despite the fact that business activities have flourished in this town during the past some years particularly after extension of train services.
“After Katra, we will hold similar awareness camps in other parts of the State also as I am of the opinion that awareness can help the department up to large extent in widening of tax base”, Principal Commissioner of Income Tax further said.
It is pertinent to mention here that there are 12.70 lakh PAN card holders in Jammu and Kashmir but the number of Income Tax assessees is 84,420 only and this is really a matter of serious concern for the new Principal Commissi-oner of Income Tax as by no stretch of imagination such a huge gap can be justified.
Sangeeta Gupta also highlighted the targets fixed for the J&K Circle by the CBDT and various steps being planned for achieving the same.
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