Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 2: Notwith- standing hostile atmosphere in Kashmir valley last year, the Income Tax Department has succeeded in surpassing the targets fixed for recovery of taxes. Moreover, the department has made addition of around 3000 assessees from the region.
“Irrespective of the hostile atmosphere last year, all the offices of Srinagar Range remained opened on all the working days to achieve the targets assigned by the headquarters”, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
They disclosed that total cash collection was to the tune of Rs 35.06 crore and arrear demand was recovered to the extent of Rs 28.2 crore against allotted target of Rs 19.40 crore.
“This could only be possible with the highest degree of commitment and efforts shown by attaching accounts under Section 226(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 in 75 cases for the first time in the history of range”, sources said, adding “1500 arrear entries have been reduced by bunching the entries while as 3000 assessees have been added by conducting awareness programmes and roping in Income Tax Bar and Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries in widening the tax base”.
“The department ensured smooth functioning of all the stations despite lots of constraints in the shape of shortage of officers and staff, hostile weather and social conditions besides total breakdown of the communication system for a period of almost two months”, they said, adding “even AST system remained non-functional for a period of more than one month”.
Moreover, Srinagar Range has also contributed in Income Disclosure Scheme-I. In 16 cases, an amount of Rs 17.43 crore has been disclosed while as two cases have opted for IDS-2 and an amount of Rs 41 lakh has been disclosed.
According to the sources, the department has made this remarkable achievement under the guidance of the then Principal Commissioner of Income Tax J&K Circle, Sangeeta Gupta and Additional Commissioner Income Tax Srinagar and Jammu Range S K Sharma.
The achievement was recognized on Income Tax Day at Union Capital recently when Bashir Ahmad Bhat, ACIT Srinagar was conferred with Union Finance Minister’s Award. The award was presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The office of ACIT Circle Srinagar was among the 22 offices selected for the award from across the country.
Follow our WhatsApp channel