AGARTALA / NEW DELHI, Sep 17 (TIWN): Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned tax evaders to file undeclared taxes by Sep 30 or face actions during his ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio address in June’16.
PM said “We lose our peace by violating rules, why not give correct information about our income and assets to Govt?”. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last week warned tax evaders and high tax evasion could mean that the standard rate of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) may remain high. Union Government was serious about the issue, it put out advertisements in leading national dailies on Sunday requesting citizens to declare their undisclosed assets before September 30, 2016, starting from June 1, 2016.
L.C. Joshi Ranee, Principal Commissioner of Income Tax (PCIT) said on Friday at Agartala that "Stern actions would be taken and penalty would be imposed on the people, who do not declare their deposits and assets by September 30 under the IDS," However, in spite of Union Govt’s seriousness and PCIT’s warning,a whooping 57000 tax-evaders remain in Tripura out of approx. 1 lakh Tax payers. Only 43000 paying their taxes, admitted by Agartala Circle Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (JCIT) Syamal Datta which itself is an acceptance of failure of Agartala Circle Income Tax authorities.

Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (JCIT) Syamal Datta who is responsible for Tax collection in Agartala Circle/ Tripura region failed to cite reasons behind massive 57,000 tax-evaders under his teritory.

It was surprising to see that a Joint Commissioner rank official citing an example of the ratio of the tax payers and evaders, JCIT Syamal Datta said that in Tripura, the approximate number of tax payers is 43,000, whereas the actual number is around one lakh, so 57000 Tax-evaders remain.

Certainly question arises the role of Agartala circle Income Tax officials that how they got this magic number of 1 Lakh total Tax payers in Tripura but Taxes are collected only from 43,000 Tax Payers?

In  his last visit during Press meet at Hotel Rajdhani, Northeastern Principal Commissioner L C Joshi Ranee, said, “There are only 43,000 tax payers amongst 37 lakh people of Tripura”.  “In 2012-13 FY Tripura’s income tax was 100 crores, in 2013-14  FY it was only 65 crores and in 2015-16 it was only 104 crores, which is not at all satisfactory”, he added.

However, in the inauguration programme held on Friday, P  K Debbarma NE IT Chief Commissioner (Retr),    MLA Gopal Roy,    L C Joshi Ranee Principal Commissioner Shillong, Shyamal Dutta, Joint Commissioner of Tripura were present.

As per Finance Ministry directives, Tax declaration can be filed online or in print form to the jurisdictional Commissioner of Income-tax.

Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (JCIT) Syamal Datta (circled red) of Agartala I-T circle at inauguration programme. TIWN  Pic Sep 16

Filing  scheme promises immunity by exempting declared assets from Wealth Tax, scrutiny/enquiry and prosecution under Income-tax Act/Wealth-tax act, and immunity from Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988.

The Prime Minister also said that declaring assets will help citizens avoid difficulties which they might face after September 30.

“The country’s population is 125 crore and only 1.5 lakh people have taxable income above 50 lakh rupees,” he said.

In 2014 months after being sworn to power, the government had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into undisclosed and overseas assets. In May, the government unearthed tax evasion of around Rs 50,000 crore of indirect taxes and undisclosed income of Rs 21,000 crore through a series of measures implemented on advice of SIT in the past two years.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that “There is a big debate on the standard rates of GST which depends on various factors . Amongst many factors that would impact the arithmetical calculation of the rate , one of the key factors is the higher the number of exemptions, the higher would be the standard rate. And accordingly, higher the amount of evasion, higher would be the standard rate,” said Jaitley, who was speaking last week at a conference organized by FICCI and the ICAI in Mumbai on government’s Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016. Under IDS which opened on June 1, black money holders can come clean by declaring the assets by September 30 and paying tax and penalty of 45 per thereafter. Those who fail to take advantage of the scheme will have to face stringent actions, including imprisonment.

IDS scheme promises immunity by exempting declared assets from Wealth Tax, scrutiny/enquiry and prosecution under Income-tax Act/Wealth-tax act, and immunity from Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988.

Jaitley said with the implementation of GST, the ability to discover a direct tax income of the tax department will also increase. “Technology has become a big facilitator. therefore as we advance over the years not only is it morally, ethically correct to pay ones taxes, it is also safer to pay your taxes, “ he added.

The Finance Minister also said the IDS is not an immunity scheme and there will be no other compliance window for the domestic tax evaders after the IDS. “With each passing day the world is becoming more and more transparent .That iron curtain around the banking secrecy in tax havens is being demolished. The G-20 initiative, the impact of the FATCA law in the US, the co-operation between one country and another. Information is now available on a real time basis and cases have come to light,” said Jaitley urging people to use the IDS to declare undisclosed assets.

The Income Tax department has already identified 90 lakh high value transactions without PAN. As part of the scrutiny, the department will initially issue 7 lakh letters to those who have indulged in such transactions seeking their details.

Principal Commissioner of Income Tax (PCIT) L.C. Joshi Ranee spoke with TIWN about  Income Dept’s activities and revenue collections in NE region.

Hopefully, Income Tax Dept’s  JCT Syamal Datta  can provide answers to Tripura’s huge remaining 57000 Tax-Evaders and failure to reach out to majority of Tax evaders.