'Need to move away from aggressive tax planning & assessment'

There is a need to move away from aggressive tax planning and such tax assessment undertaken in certain situations and find a resolution to this issue, Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said today
"I think, we should move away from this whole business of aggressive tax planning vis-a-vis aggressive assessment. The problem lies in both.
"There are aggressive tax plannings being undertaken by companies in certain situation. There is aggressive assessment also being done in certain situation. We need to work together and find resolution of this issue," Das said at an event here.
He said the whole perception of the department being aggressive is centred around 7-8 cases which are in various courts.

The Revenue Secretary's observations assumes significance as the department in the recent years has attracted criticism of hurting investors sentiment after it sent tax demands on some multinational companies such as Vodafone, Nokia and Shell.
Das further said the government is committed to stable and predictable tax regime for investors and will soon come out with new threshold for cases referred to Advance Authority for Rulings.
He further informed that department of revenue would start the budget exercise for 2015-16 from next month.
"From November onwards we will get on with our interaction with various industry groups, we will be starting our homework as part of preparation of the next budget," Das added.