Step up efforts to track black money, Jaitley tells I-T officials

The Union Finance Minister was addressing senior officers of the Income Tax Department

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (right) with R.K. Tiwari, Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes at a conference in New Delhi on Monday. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asked income tax officers to focus their efforts on unearthing black money within the country, which is also very large, and deal firmly but in a non-adversarial, non-intrusive, transparent and fair manner with evaders.

He said the officers must strike the right balance in achieving tax collection targets on the one hand and play the role of tax facilitators for assessees on the other.

Mr. Jaitley was addressing senior officers of the Income Tax department after inaugurating the two-day annual conference of Principal Chief Commissioners, Principal Directors General, Chief Commissioners and Directors General of income tax here on Monday.

He said he was hopeful that the direct taxes revenue target of Rs. 7,36,221 crore for the current financial year would be surpassed but without any compromise on ethics.

“The tax department’s biggest asset is its credibility,” the Finance Minister said.

Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das also addressed the conference and asked the officers to reduce tax disputes by avoiding frivolous and avoidable litigations.

Senior officers should find innovative means to achieve their revenue targets and work in a non-adversarial and non-intrusive manner, Mr. Das said, adding that their efforts should be for higher tax recovery and for reducing tax arrears which are to the tune of Rs. 4,00,000 crore.

Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman R.K. Tiwari, assured that the officers would make their utmost efforts to achieve the tax collection targets fixed for them. Collections had exceeded the targets during the last financial year as well, he added.

Direct tax collections in the last 10 years had grown over 600 per cent, Mr. Tiwari said.

He also said that for improving the efficiency and bringing transparency in tax administration, the board had taken action for IT enablement of all processes in the department, launched the Income Tax Business Application (ITBA) project and constituted an in-house committee for assessment of ongoing disputes.