The Income Tax department, through surveys, had detected undisclosed income to the extent of Rs.90,000 crore during the financial year 2013-14, of which Rs.1,133 crore was from Hyderabad region, now covering the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Sectors to which the income is sourced include mobile phone trading, real estate, steel, power and chemicals, as informed by the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) K.V. Chowdary at a press conference here on Friday.
Costs pertaining to big projects are being inflated in accounts of these industries, so that funds can be diverted, he noted. Of the cash seized during the recent election campaign in erstwhile A.P., Rs.70 crore was identified as undisclosed income, and taxed accordingly, he said.
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Through search & seizure operations in 2013-14, the department had seized assets worth Rs.808 crore and admission of unaccounted income amounting to Rs.19,792 crore. In Hyderabad, the searches revealed undisclosed income of Rs.1,441 crore.
For the current financial year, the target of tax collection has been fixed at Rs.7.36 lakh crore which is 15 per cent higher than last year’s collection. Net collections till date stand at Rs.1,51,154 crore, after accounting for refund of Rs.53,936 crore, he informed.
While the target for the Hyderabad region is fixed at Rs.38,288 crore which is almost 20 per cent higher than last year’s collections, the net collections till date are only Rs.5,978 crore after accounting for refund of Rs.3,175 crore. This is four per cent less than the collections during the same period last year, and Mr.Chowdary attributed it to possible business recession.
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The CBDT chairman cautioned the charitable and other organisations not under the tax net to file returns for the tax deducted at source from the employees’ salaries.
E-filing of tax returns has picked up when compared to last year, and identification of ‘non-filers’ has gathered pace. A total of 22 lakh ‘non-filers’ have been issued notices this year, and more will be identified in the second phase.
The department will shift to new software ‘Income Tax Business Applications’ from next April to improve efficiency. Seventy more Ayakar Seva Kendras will be opened across the country, he said.
The posts of commissioner, appeals will be increased from 260 to 360 for faster disposal of cases, and the Advance Ruling scheme will be introduced for resident tax payers from this year.
Asked on the alleged violations by SpiceJet, Mr.Chowdary said the company is under the department’s scanner, and will be penalised in case of violations. Allegations are that the company has not distributed Form-16 to its employees, even while deducting tax at source from their salaries.