Top I-T officials to discuss ways to augment revenue

With government targeting Rs 6.68 lakh crore from direct taxes, top income tax officers will gather here tomorrow to discuss ways to augment revenue collection and widen tax base.

The two-day 29th Annual Conference of Chief Commissioners and Directors General of Income Tax will be inaugurated by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, an official statement said.

"The main areas for deliberations would be steps to augment revenue, tax administration reforms, strengthening of TDS machinery, widening and deepening of tax base, improving taxpayer services and Human resources management, among others," it added.

The government plans to collect over Rs 6.68 lakh crore from direct taxes in the current fiscal, up from Rs 5.65 lakh crore in the previous fiscal.

The conference will provide a platform to the Chief Commissioners and Directors General to have direct interaction with the senior functionaries of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on various issues arising in the field.

Amid slowdown in economic activities, the government has stepped up efforts to increase revenue collections and has been sending reminders to assessees to file tax returns.

Recently, the tax department announced that it would send letters to 70,000 "high priority" assessees this month asking them to disclose their true income and pay taxes.

To scale up human resources, the Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to create 20,751 additional posts in the Income Tax Department in various cadres. This comprises of 1,349 additional posts in the IRS cadre and 19,402 additional posts in the non-IRS cadres.