Fishing in tax waters

The fishing community in booming Rajkot, Gujarat believed that their income from fishing was not taxable, until an income-tax officer told them otherwise a few years ago. To widen the tax net, the officer offered them an olive branch: he promised the fishing community that he would not look into their past as long as they come clean. No wonder, tax collections from Rajkot shot up nearly 1,000 per cent. Unfortunately, the tax department has left the need to widen the tax net to the individual initiative and innovation of such officers than try to institutionalise the system.