If you have a permanent account number (PAN) but have not filed the income-tax returns, the taxman may be looking your way.
Faced with a likely shortfall in revenue collections expected in the Budget for 2012-13, the Union government is on a pursuit of such assessees. The government has been urging all taxpayers to “disclose their true income and pay appropriate taxes within the current financial year.”
As a follow-up measure to Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose’s stern warning last December to those who have not filed their tax returns, the Directorate of Intelligence and Criminal Investigation of the Income Tax Department is issuing letters to 35,170 PAN holders in the first batch. More than 12 lakh assessees with PAN have not filed their returns.
“The letter contains the summary of the information of financial transaction(s), along with a customised response sheet, and seeks to know if the person had filed his income tax return or not,” a Finance Ministry statement said here on Monday.
For effective monitoring, a nodal cell has been set up to capture the response and take follow-up action.
“There will be an online monitoring system to ensure follow-up action and track return filing and tax payment of the target segment,” the statement said.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has underscored the need for a non-intrusive tax administration to enable the taxpayer to file returns and pay taxes.
