Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 29: Terming the assertions from different quarters on department’s surveys and searches as illogical, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (CCIT) Amritsar, Gurpreet Singh today said that these are the measures to prevent tax evasion by way of gathering information for proper and correct assessment of income liable to tax.
Interacting exclusively with EXCELSIOR on his visit to Aayakar Bhawan here, Mr Singh said, “there might be some sort of resentment over the surveys and searches by the department but the fact is that these are basically the preventive measures to keep check on tax evasion attempts and ensure strict compliance to the provisions of the Income Tax Act”.
“Conducting searches and surveys is the mandate given to the taxmen by the Income Tax Act and these powers have been upheld even by the Wanchoo and Kelker Committees on tax reforms besides Supreme Court of India”, said Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, who was flanked by Commissioner of Income Tax, J&K Circle, A K Thatai.
Stating that there will be anarchy and chaos if the Income Tax Department doesn’t exercise this power, Mr Singh said, “our surveys are never aimed at harassing the assessees or planned at random. A long process of verification and information collection is carried out before knocking at the doors of the assessees, who don’t come forward voluntarily to disclose the exact income”.
Mr Singh earlier conveyed the object of the surveys to the representatives of Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Associated Chamber of Traders Federation, Chartered Accounts and others after some participants called for bringing an end to surveys and searches.
“As per the Income Tax Act, the assessees have the remedy to go to the court of law but since our surveys and searches are based on the concrete information there remains no room for knocking the doors of courts”, he said, adding “notwithstanding the powers to carry out surveys and searches we want assessees to voluntarily comply with the provisions of Income Tax Act”.
Mr Singh, who is the strong votary of transparency in the tax administration, said, “We want to have minimum interface between the department and assessees for which several steps have been taken. All what we want is assessees to pay tax honestly”.
Responding to another question, the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax said, “The department doesn’t have any yardstick of discrimination. Contrary to the general perception particularly among the business community of Jammu, there is no different approach for the Kashmir valley”, adding “we are closely watching business trends there also and wherever credible information emerges we will not hesitate to play our role”.
When asked about the performance of J&K circle, the CCIT said, “the entire team headed by Commissioner A K Thatai is working very hard and the result of the same is that they have achieved over 50% target fixed for the current financial year”.
As against target of Rs 880.58 crore, the J&K Circle has collected Rs 441.46 crore tax till October 28, which makes it 50.13% of the target for the current financial year. “When the collection till October 28, 2013 is compared with the corresponding period of previous year, there is an increase of Rs 115 crore, which clearly indicates that J&K Circle will meet the target”, Mr Singh said.
Earlier, CCIT Amritsar, who is having jurisdiction over J&K, Amritsar and Bathinda held a meeting with the representatives of CCI, ACTF, Jammu Chapter of NIRC of ICAI, Jammu, Income Tax Bar Association and top tax payers of the region.
During the course of interactive session with the participants—Y V Sharma, Y P Gupta, Sat Mehta, Vikram Garg, R K Gupta, Director J&K Bank, various issues including grievances and concerns of the tax payers were discussed.
The CCIT also held a formal review meeting with the officers and staff members of the department and stressed upon smooth and corruption free functioning of the department in view of the vigilance awareness week being observed from October 28 to November 2.
On the occasion, A K Thatai, Commissioner of Income Tax J&K Circle briefed CCIT about the working of the department in the State. R K Kakar, Joint Commissioner of Income Tax Range-I, Jammu and Rakesh Kumar, Joint Commissioner of Income Tax Range-2 Jammu, Mini Chandran U, Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax (Hq), Gulzar Ahmed Wani, Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Circle-3 Srinagar and other senior officers of the department also attended the session.
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