Skip to main content

Pay income tax over Rs.1 lakh to win certificates from govt

By
The honest and diligent taxpayer must be appreciated and encouraged — this is the new mantra of the NDA government. And the Central Board of Direct Tax (CDBT), has been entrusted the job of sending out certificates of honour to individuals who pay above Rs.1 lakh income tax.
CBDT has already mailed over 800,000 such certificates since the initiative was launched less than two weeks ago. An official source said that the department has been asked to undertake the exercise on priority. So many more such certificates will be sent out in the coming days.
According to government data, only 1 million taxpayers declare incomes over Rs.10 lakh, below which the tax rate is 20%. This is only 2% of the total taxpayers in the country.
This will be an annual affair. “The tax department is not there to harass the citizens..while it is firm, it is not going to take any step to harass citizens,” Hasmukh Adhia, revenue secretary told HT. “We want tax payers to be made part of the nation building process...all tax payers should feel proud,” Adhia said.
Sources in the department who did not wish to be named said this is part of the government’s taxpayer engagement initiative.
Adhia added that the department’s working on building a friendly-image and will not be vindictive towards anybody.
Tax officials have been asked to be firm but “not to harass those who have not availed the four month Income Disclosure Scheme— providing an opportunity to all those with unaccounted wealth to come out clean. The recently concluded scheme is set to fetch over ?30,000 crore in taxes from a total disclosure of ?65,250 crore of unaccounted wealth in the form of cash and other assets.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently asked tax officials to remove the fear of harassment from the minds of taxpayers in the country and work towards bridging the “trust deficit”.
The message is clear: While no taxpayer will be allowed to hoard unaccounted cash and assets, the department will also develop a soft and friendly image.
Business Standard New Delhi,06th October 2016

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

By
  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

By
  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Healthy balance sheets augur well for economy: RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra

By
  Large tariffs by the United States administration and elevated geopolitical risk have increased near-term global financial stability risks, and along with weather events pose downside risks to domestic growth, Reserve Bank of India(RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in the foreword to the Financial Stability Report released today.Noting that domestic growth momentum is buoyed by strong domestic drivers, sound macroeconomic fundamentals and prudent policies, Malhotra said: “External spillovers and weather-related events could pose downside risks to growth.”On the other hand, he said the outlook for inflation is benign, and there is greater confidence in the durable alignment of inflation with the Reserve Bank’s target.Commenting that the structural shifts reshaping the global economy are making policy intervention challenging, the Governor emphasised the need for central banks and financial sector regulators to remain vigilant, prudent and agile in safeguarding their economies and...
Post a Comment
Read more