I-T, CBDT to finalise tax collection roadmap during 2-day meet

The conference will be inaugurated by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

The top brass of Income Tax department and CBDT will strategise steps for revenue collection post the budget announcements during a two-day conference beginning here tomorrow.

The conference of the Principal Chief Commissioners, Principal Directors General, Chief Commissioners and Directors General of the I-T department will be inaugurated by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely who would, for the first time on a large scale, be talking to the direct taxes revenue collection arm of the government.

"The conference would set the ball rolling for strategising the revenue and I-T collection work done by the tax department across the country. High-level deliberations will also take place during the two-days which will also see the firming up of the annual action plan as finalised by the government for the department," a senior Finance Ministry official said.

During the meeting, an annual affair of the I-T department and its apex policy making body-- the Central Board of Direct Taxes, measures related to non-intrusive and technology based revenue collection would also be discussed.

Top officers of the department will also discuss threadbare the challenges and accountability of the assessing officer after which the CBDT will announce the formation of the high-level committee which will scrutinise all I-T cases emerging out of the retrospective amendment of the Act.

The formation of the committee was announced by Jaitely in his budget speech.

The Finance Ministry had said among the major issues to be discussed during the conference would be on "non-filers monitoring system, data warehousing and business intelligence, role of directorate of intelligence and criminal investigation in the changing scenario, search, seizure and surveys- study of effectiveness among others".

Apart from the I-T and CBDT brass, senior officials of the Finance Ministry would also be part of the discussions.

Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman would close the conference on July 22 even as senior advocate Harish Salve would deliver a lecture on taxation and legal matters.