Treat CAG, PAC & PSC reports as benchmarks for good tax governance

Dear Sir,

Why not some out of box thinking also. First would be to follow the example of a beat constable in Delhi Police and Kerala Police department - who tend to cover a certain area and know each and every house hold. Why not the tax inspectors (including all officials) should not go door to door to collect information. Why not tax officials collect data from the Insurance companies, banks, mutual funds, financial institutions (NBFC), post- offices, builders, land revenue departments, mobile, telephone and internet service provider operators for high value transactions (may be monthly bills of 5000 or more), state transport department etc and compare the same with the PAN details with them - whether all these people have PAN or not, paying income tax or not and why? Why not commissioners visit their jurisdictional locality and ensure that the shopkeepers, showrooms, banquet halls etc displays PAN on their place of business and letter heads and bills? Why not door to door campaign to know the person, business and his status as a tax payer? with such a huge work force sitting in offices and doing almost nothing significant as far as revenue collection is concerned, this can be done and should be done. Why not combine the both boards to start with and common returns for excise, service tax and income tax which could be annual with sample copies of high value and lowest value invoices both for sale and purchase are to be uploaded on the site with complete details of the buyer and seller for the total turnover of sale and purchase & expense.

Arbind Aggarwal 27/12/2014