Over 27 lakh new assesses brought under IT net country-wide

Maximum number added from Gujarat, Goa and Maharashtra

Over 27 lakh new assessees from across the country have been brought under the tax net by the Income Tax department as part of its ambitious drive to bring one crore fresh taxpayers within its ambit this financial year.

Top sources in the Finance Ministry, quoting official data, said the maximum number of new assessees have been added from the western states like Gujarat, Goa and Maharashtra.

"More than 27 lakh new assessees have been identified and added to the existing tax base till recently. These new individuals and entities have been included after the department had launched a drive in the middle of this year to bring at least one crore new taxpayers under the net within this financial year," sources said.

Admitting that achieving the target was a "tough task", they said the I-T department's field offices have informed the Finance Ministry that about 60-70% of it would be reached by the set deadline.

"The western region of the country comprising Gujarat, Goa and Maharashtra have taken an early lead. It is expected that other regions will get good numbers by the end of this fiscal on March 31, 2016," they said.

The department is extensively taking the help of a special electronic module called 'non-filers management' to identify and detect financial and other links to get hold of those who have the potential to pay Income Tax but are not paying.

As part of government's initiative to broaden the tax base, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy- making body of the IT department, had directed all its field offices to achieve the goal with the Pune region being given the maximum target of bringing in over 10 lakh new assessees.

Pune, Maharashtra's second largest urban centre, is followed by north-western states comprising Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana with over 9.30 lakh new assessees, while the newly bifurcated states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been asked to contribute 7.93 lakh new taxpayers.

Similarly, Gujarat region had been given a target of getting more than 7.86 lakh taxpayers, Tamil Nadu over 7.64 lakh, West Bengal and Sikkim over 6.91 lakh, and Mumbai region 6.23 lakh assessees. The target for the national capital has been set at 5.32 lakh new assessees.

The tax department has a total of 18 regions for purposes of collection of revenue under the major heads of Income Tax, Wealth Tax and Advance Tax for large entities like corporates.

The Board has asked the taxman to adopt a multi-pronged strategy to achieve this 'not-so-easy' target by holding meetings with trade associations and professional bodies and obtaining data on under-reporting assessees through technical and human intelligence.

The strategy in this regard was deliberated upon and formally launched in May this year when CBDT told the tax department about the government's desire to have at least 25 lakh new assessees each month.