The CBDT chief also asked tax officials to train their scanner on TDS collections.New Delhi:With growth in direct tax collections sluggish, CBDT has directed income tax department officials to "maximise" their efforts and conduct targeted surveys and file court cases against those who wilfully evade taxes.CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra has shot off a letter to all Principal Chief Commissioners of I-T Department, asking them to pull up their socks as only three months are left for current financial year to close on March 31."On review of trends of growth under different minor heads, it is noted that growth in collection under regular assessment tax (recovery from arrear and current demand) is extremely low at 1.1 per cent as compared to 15.6 per cent growth during corresponding period last year."Most of regions are, in fact, showing negative growth under regular assessment tax.
This is a matter of serious concern and concerted efforts are now required to be made to drive up recovery from arrear and current demand," board chief said.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) frames policy for I-T Department and supervises its work.
Talking about direct tax collections, Chandra said that by end of December, 2018 growth rate has been 13.6 per cent as against target of 14.7 per cent.
"The position of growth in gross collections is marginally better at 14.1 per cent but still below achieving budget estimates of Rs 11,50,000 crore," he said.The CBDT chief also suggested some "strategies" to be adopted and implemented to achieve targets.
He asked taxman to conduct "targeted recovery surveys in potential cases where high amount of recovery is likely".
"Sale of attached properties in appropriate cases by tax recovery officers to recover confirmed demand where normal measures of recovery have not yielded results" to be deployed, undertaking action to recover outstanding dues from companies and filing prosecution complaints in courts against those people who are wilfully evading payment of outstanding taxes.The CBDT chief also asked tax officials to train their scanner on tax deducted at source (TDS) collections and launch prosecution against those who are at "substantial default".
It has also been asked to "verify advance tax payment" by those who sell properties and monitoring of dividend distribution tax.
The taxman has also been asked to timely complete regular assessments (non time-barring) in cases where demand is likely to be raised and collected during current fiscal.
"Other strategies depending upon specific characteristics of region should also be adopted so as to increase collections and ultimately achieve budget target," Chandra directed.