Conduct non-intrusive investigations: FM tells tax officials

In a step towards tax-payer friendly regime, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today asked revenue department officials to adopt non-intrusive methods of investigation and impressed upon the need for skill development.
The Minister "exhorted the officers of the Income Tax Department to maximise the use of innovative and non-intrusive methods of investigation," an official statement said.
He impressed upon the need for skill development and upgradation to keep pace with newer and innovative methodologies adopted to evade taxes.
Jaitley was addressing the meeting of Directors General of I-T (Investigation and Intelligence & Criminal Investigation) and Chief Commissioners of I-T (Central) here.

"The quality of representation of cases of I-T Department before various courts of law needs to be improved," he said and stressed upon devising mechanisms to attract the best talent and build expertise in the specialised subject of taxation.
He also called for training the middle level officers in order to improve their forensic skills to successfully deal with new tools of technology being used for tax evasions.

The meeting was attended along with the Finance Minister by Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das, CBDT Chairman and Member (Investigation), Directors General of I-T (Investigation and Intelligence & Criminal Investigation) of different regions and Chief Commissioners of I-T (Central) along with other senior officers of the CBDT among others.

Speaking on the occasion, Das appreciated the sensitivity of the tasks assigned to the investigation Directorates and advised the officers to be firm and fair in their approach towards the tax payers.
The government estimates to garner Rs 13.64 lakh crore from both direct and indirect tax collection during the current fiscal.
During 2013-14, tax collection fell short of target by a whopping Rs 77,000 crore. The government collected Rs 11.58 lakh crore against the budget estimate of Rs 12.35 lakh crore.