 "hasmukh adhia Revenue secretary")
The income tax (I-T) department has decided to hold extensive publicity campaigns on the Black Money Disclosure Scheme launched on June 1. Also, to widen the tax base and devise ways to check the issue of undisclosed money, it was decided at the two-day Rajasva Gyan Sangam, a retreat for the tax administrators that concluded on Friday.
Tax departments will work to improve payer services, increasing the tax base, checking evasion, reducing litigation and digitising processes, said revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia.
“We had an entire session on strategies to tackle the menace of black money in the system. The ideas or the strategy that emerged cannot be revealed,” he added.
A website will be opened to monitor the efforts by officers to increase the popularity of the Income Declaration Scheme and the Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his inaugural address on Thursday had outlined a five-point charter for tax administrators — RAPID, which stands for revenue, accountability, probity, information and digitisation to reform the system.
The black money compliance scheme is in the form of a four-month window that remains open till September 30, allowing assessees to declare hitherto unaccounted money and assets by paying a tax of 45 per cent.
For the first time the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Central Board of Excise & Customs came together for a conference, with simultaneous sessions. The two-day Sangam was attended by close to 250 officers of the ranks of principal chief commissioners, chief commissioners and principal commissioners from CBDT and 170 from the CBEC.
Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, in his interaction with the officials, asked them to focus on grievance redressal and increasing their interaction with the public. “He said ministers in the Cabinet are more accessible than tax officers, which needs to be changed. He asked us to take out two hours each day to interact with the public and understand their concerns,” said an official who did not wish to be identified.
Sinha also urged them to identify global best practices and brainstorm over those.
The I-T department is also looking at expanding the comprehensive grievance redressal scheme, E-Nivaran, wherein all the various grievance redressal systems will be integrated.
It aims to use non-intrusive methods for checking evasion including further expanding the non-filers management system and mining more data from bank deposits and credit cards, obtained from annual information reports filed by banks. So far, 10 million pieces of information have come through this route and five million taxpayers added.
Deliberations took place on the proposed national goods and services tax (GST) rollout and administrative preparedness in terms of the information technology framework and training of officers.
CBEC decided to identify the top 20 litigated issues and whether any policy change was required.
Noted author Chetan Bhagat also addressed the officers and shared tips on improving of services, in a session called 'Taxing with Love'. He asked the tax departments to treat payers as its "customers" and that a tax paying culture be inculcated in the country by honouring the top payers. "He also gave certain practical solutions for simplification of forms and user-friendly website," the government stated.
Subjects such as taxpayer services, initiatives in e-governance, information exchange with foreign jurisdictions, investigation into undisclosed foreign assets, litigation management and dispute resolution and schemes for paperless assessments were discussed during the technical sessions for CBDT.
CBEC says it had conducted a taxpayer survey in association with business chamber Ficci and consultancy KPMG, which said 72 per cent of the respondents felt a perceptible change in its policies.
On the indirect tax side, there were deliberation on revenue trends, update on GST, strategy to mitigate litigation, expansion of digital footprint, facilitation of trade, impact of trade facilitation treaties and standardisation of processes.
The focus is also on Improving the facilitation levels through the single-window launched on 1 April by adding more details about other departments' requirements, such as those of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.
