The Hindu : National : Collect taxes like a bee: Chidambaram

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Saturday, Jun 09, 2007
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Collect taxes like a bee: Chidambaram

Special Correspondent

``We have the obligation of providing prompt services to tax payers while collecting taxes''

P. Chidambaram

HYDERABAD: At a time when the Income Tax Department officials are grappling with increasing cases of evasion, is there an effective way to realise taxes without hurting the taxpayers?

Ask Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram who exhorted taxmen here to take inspiration from the bee, which draws honey from flowers, without hurting them. Taxes should be collected in a similar manner,'' he said. ``People pay taxes, willingly or unwillingly, and they have no obligation towards us. But, we have the obligation of providing prompt and courteous services to them while collecting taxes,'' he said.

Mr. Chidambaram was addressing a meeting after inaugurating the newly constructed state-of-the art Income Tax Towers here on Friday. Constructed at a cost of Rs. 38 crores, the building is the first of its kind centrally air-conditioned Central Government office in the country and designed to bring all the IT offices in the city under one roof.

He said since IT was the tax of the future, there was need for employees to rededicate themselves and present a different and improved image of the department. They should ensure payer-friendly tax collection methods even while enforcing the law.

The Finance Minister complimented the Hyderabad region for achieving tax collection of Rs. 10,186 crores in the previous financial year.

Going by indications in the first two months of the current fiscal, the performance was set to improve further, he added.

``Special knack''

Appreciating the Finance Minister for his ``special knack'' of generating funds for flagship programmes such as the national rural employment guarantee programme, Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said the executing agency, Central Public Works Department, needed to re-invent itself as it was important for its survival. The department could not rest on its laurels but function even more vigorously as a customer-centric organisation to face the competition. Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman B.M. Singh said the IT department would set up a Central Processing Centre on the new premises for speedy processing of returns. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, D.V. Dharmik spoke.

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