Taxable ministry

In the last month, the income-tax department has sent notices to over 100,000 people who have a PAN card but did not file their income-tax return last year. In its zeal, the income-tax department has not even spared finance ministry officials, particularly in the Department of Economic Affairs. Interestingly, the tax due in some of the cases is just few hundred rupees. Officials at the receiving end say this is not unusual for the tax department as they have a history of sending notices to secretary-level officers, too. In fact, once the name of the revenue secretary's wife was randomly thrown up by the system for scrutiny.