Pune I-T collections up 34% in '06-07

Income Tax collections in the Pune region have shown a substantial rise in 2006-07 over last year as the amount of tax collected till March 31 has exceeded Rs 8,970 crore.

The rise in the collection is substantial in both corporate and income tax, Santosh Datta, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax for Pune told reporters on Tuesday.

Datta said that the region has exceeded the target of Rs 8,756 crore for I-T collection for '06-07 by over Rs 200 crore. This is 34 per cent higher than the Income Tax collected last year.

According to him corporate tax collected during '06-07 was Rs 3,838 crore, 29 per cent higher than last year, whereas Income Tax collected was Rs 4,881 crore, 38 per cent higher. Datta said that the tax collection is an indication of an overall improved performance of the industry and business in Pune.

Datta said that the department conducted 46 searches and seizures when an undisclosed income of Rs 182 crore was detected and Rs 23 crore assets were seized.

The department conducted 497 surveys in 2006-07 and unearthed an undisclosed income of Rs 324 crore and a tax of Rs 50 crore was collected. Last year, the number of surveys were 448 which led to the detection of concealed income of Rs 147 crore and collection of IT of Rs 30 crore, he informed.

Datta said that the top five corporate tax payers in the city included Bank of Maharashtra (Rs 125 crore), Cummins India Ltd (Rs 108 crore), Bharat Forge Ltd (Rs 108 crore), Thermax Ltd (Rs 100 crore) and Piaggio Vehicles Ltd (Rs 67 crore). These numbers are based on the advance tax paid by corporate till March 31, 2007 and the final figure may rise, he said.

Datta said that the department is gearing up to become more of a service organisation and adopting tax payer - friendly measures such as better service, computerisation of operations and the timely issue of refund orders.

He also informed that the Pune region is likely to get around 110 persons at various levels across categories, after which the efficiency of work in I-T department is expected to improve substantially.