MUMBAI, February 6: The Income-Tax Act should be amended to allow a "conscience payment" to facilitate the declaration of black money by the assessees, said tax-expert YP Trivedi at a function organised by Compuvision."We still have areas like the real-estate market, where it is not always possible to conduct transactions in cheque," he said. He felt a provision should be inducted in the act so that such an income was declared under the head "income from other sources".
Alternatively, he suggested the Voluntary Reduction of Litigation Scheme (VRLS) to reduce the pending tax-related matters. "Such schemes should be a permanent feature, so that the assessees can voluntarily pay the tax on cases locked up in litigation," he added.
Trivedi criticised the government for introducing the voluntary disclosure of income scheme (VDIS), instead of curbing the root cause of black money. "I know people who do not file income-tax returns for years and when such a scheme is presented, they make full use of it," hesaid.
Trivedi said according to information from the Swiss embassy, about $80 billion, belonging to Indians, is stacked up in Swiss banks. He felt honest tax payers should be rewarded and given some incentives/priority. Depending upon the amount of tax paid, the honest assessees can be given silver or gold cards, which will entitle them for priority in areas including railway/airline bookings, he suggested.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
