By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 29, 2017: WHILE addressing the Members of the Consultative Committee, the Union Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, said that the Govt has taken various initiatives to widen the tax base in the country. Members of the Committee urged the FM that incentives should be given to the new tax papers so that more and more people are encouraged to file tax returns and pay due taxes which in turn would help in widening the tax base.

The Finance Minister further said that the concept of ‘no scrutiny' was introduced for the First Time Non-Business Tax Payers having income up to Rs. 5 lakhs so that more and more people are encouraged to join the tax net and file their IT returns and pay the due amount of taxes. The Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley was addressing the Second Meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Finance on the subject of “Initiatives of IT Department”” in the national capital here today.

Highlighting the initiatives of the Department in the field of E-Governance, the Finance Minister said that 97% of the income tax returns were filed electronically this year, out of which 92% returns were processed within 60 days and 90% refunds were also issued within 60 days. Mr Jaitley also highlighted the initiatives of the Income Tax Department as far as Ease of Doing Business and promoting Financial Markets are concerned. In this regard, he specifically mentioned about introduction of Presumptive Taxation Scheme for Professionals having income up to Rs. 50 lakhs. Similarly, threshold for Presumptive Taxation Scheme for business income raised from Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 2 crore and companies located in International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) have been exempted from Dividend Distribution Tax and to pay MAT @ 9% only.

The Finance Minister informed that India has entered into Foreign Collaboration with 148 countries as far as Exchange of Information for tax matters is concerned and with 39 countries for criminal matters. He said that changes in the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with Mauritius and Singapore have been incorporated to allow for source based taxation of capital gains on shares and interest income of banks.

As far as the drive against black money is concerned, the Income-tax Department has taken various initiatives since the present Government came to power. In this regard, the Finance Minister mentioned about the enactment of the Black Money Act, 2015, Comprehensive Amendments to the Benami Act 1988 and Operation Clean Money among others. The Finance Minister said that after the intense follow-up of demonetization data from 9th November 2016 to 10 th January, 2017, about 1100 searches were made resulting into seizure of Rs. 610 crore including cash of Rs. 513 crore. He said that undisclosed income of Rs. 5400 crore was detected and about 400 cases have been referred to ED and CBI for an appropriate action. 

In order to promote less cash economy and digital transactions, the Finance Minister said that the Income Tax Department took various initiatives including penalty for cash receipt of Rs. 2 lakh or more, limit of cash donation to charitable trusts reduced from Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 2000/- and no cash donations of Rs. 2000/- or more to political parties.

Highlighting the impact of demonetization and the proactive initiatives of the Income Tax Department, the Finance Minister said that the revenue collections in case of direct taxes rose to Rs. 8,49, 818 crore during the Financial Year 2016-17 at a growth rate of 14.5 per cent. The Finance Minister further said that net collections up to 18th September, 2017 in the Current Financial Year 2017-18 rose to Rs. 3.7 lakh crore with a growth of 15.7%. He said that the number of tax payers increased significantly from 4.72 crore in financial year 2012-13 to 6.26 crore during the Financial Year 2016-17.