By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JUNE 18, 2016: THE two-day Rajaswa Gyan Sangam, the mega annual conference of tax administrators from both the Revenue Boards officially came to an end yesterday evening. And among the major takeaways were the CBEC's decision to scrap all existing Circulars and issue a Master Circular in Central Excise, one of the most contentious indirect taxes in the country and the CBDT's decision to organise the jurisdictions of the Income Tax field formations on functional lines.

The key takeaways for CBEC were:

++ Identify 20 topmost litigated issues and examine from policy perspective whether any intervention is required;

++ Review powers of adjudication & enhance them for speedier disposal of adjudication;

++ Customs Single Window to develop Integrated Risk management System combining the risk parameters of participating Government agencies to aid in faster Custom clearances;

++ Simplification of procedures for write off of tax arrears;

++ Dedicated attention on augmentation of infrastructure for the tax payer and tax administrators;

++ Publication of details of cases which have been withdrawn;

++ Strengthen Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) scheme and target to bring 1000 AEO from current 31;

++ Focus on at least two infrastructural residential projects to meet the needs of young officers -Dwarka in New Delhi and CIDCO flats in Mumbai.

The major takeaways for CBDT were:

++ Reduce litigation and provide alternative dispute resolution mechanisms;

++ Creating a “Litigation Management Corner” on website of all Pr. CCsIT to provide information on High Court orders to avoid filing of appeal on settled issues in High Court;

++ Increase voluntary acceptance of paperless assessment, by pro-active engagement with all stakeholders through advertising and awareness campaigns including through the departmental website;

++ Examine the language of the communications from CPC on processing to make them enhance easy comprehension and avoid unnecessary appeals;

++ Upgradation of infrastructure like computers, scanners, Wifi, etc for assessing officers;

++ The Pr. CCsIT to ensure that all their assessing officers are allotted dedicated and secure official email account by 30.06.2016 for communication with the taxpayers for e-assessment;

++ The Pr. CCsIT to send construction proposals for 57 vacant lands in their jurisdictions within three months to address the shortage of space. Proposals for purchase of ready-build office/ residential space may also be expedited;

++ Donating surplus old steel almirahs to schools/ colleges will be examined by the Board on reference made by Pr. CCsIT.

During his interaction the Union Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitely, highlighted the fact that the Indian economy is in a transformational phase and emphasised the need to take advantage of the global changes that are reshaping the world economy. He further stressed that India is bound to become a major manufacturing hub of the world ; in this regard, reforms such as “GST” and a modern non adversarial tax regimen are crucial to catapult the share of manufacturing sector to 25% of GDP.