Heal Thyself

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Innumerable tax assessees would wholeheartedly agree with your distressing experience with the income tax department (at Delhi) narrated in the editorial Jam for the corrupt (January 10), as they would have themselves been victims.

The basic question to be addressed is, why do most people avoid paying tax? Is it that they are basically unwilling or is it that the collection machinery has been infected by the virus of corruption? The VDIS experience reveals that, by and large, people would like to come out clean if tax rates are reasonable. What inhibits them is the attitude and approach of the IT officials. It was not for nothing that revenue secretary, N K Singh, had to threaten the recalcitrant officials of dire consequences if they did not bring about a change in their approach to the declarants under VDIS who were scared of blatant violation of the confidentiality clause.

It was only after the unfair practice of conducting IT raids on some parties who had declared their black assets on the governments undertaking of confidentiality, was taken up in the court that the IT officials stopped this practice. Yet that too was not observed everywhere and by all.

The case in point is that of declarants at Mangalore where an assistant IT commissioner was reportedly opening the sealed covers and noting down names and addresses. Not only that, in Mumbai some declarants were approached by the underworld to cough up large sums apparently after such information got leaked out from the IT Department. Only after the finance minister and the revenue secretary came down heavily on the IT officials that such leakages were plugged.

It is only when the IT departments public servant assumes the role of a public prosecutor, not to the fair advantage of the government in the collection of tax but for his own pecuniary gain, that the preconditions for better tax compliance relating to fair play and trust between the State and its citizens are violated setting in motion a chain reaction. The system has thus deteriorated over time. It is, therefore, desirable to ensure a clean and efficient tax administration before expecting the taxable public to come out clean.

In such a system, the greatest sufferer is the honest salaried taxpayer. A major headache for him is to get back his refund for which,more often than not, he is compelled to resort to illegitimate means. This is especially so if his return has been filed directly and not through a petty practitioner.