Taxmen to walk out as VDIS nears climax
OUR BUREAU/PTI
With just two days to go for the close of the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme 1997, some 53,000 income tax officials have announced plans to stage a walkout on Tuesday. The walkout is in protest against the filing of a charge-sheet served on the president of the Income Tax Gazetted Officers' Federation, PS Rashtrapal, by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).The tax department has, however, made elaborate arrangements to receive declarations under VDIS despite the walkout plan. Mumbai's chief commissioner of income tax, V Muthuramalingam, said necessary manpower was being made available at the 19 centres in the city as the flow of applications was expected to be "heavy" on the second last day of the deadline. The number of declarations has touched over 5,000 per day, tax department sources in Mumbai said. During the next 48 hours it is likely to cross 6,000. Today, at least one centre alone received more than 1,000 declarations.Sources said the government has taken a policy decision to give
tokens in lieu of receipts to those who queue up before midnight on December 31, the deadline set for the scheme. The scheme is expected to net over Rs 7,500 crore as per the present estimates. The finance ministry has, however, maintained that all estimates about VDIS collections were ''way off the mark''. It said the total number of declarants had crossed the one lakh mark with only two days to go for its closure. Revenue secretary NK Singh said that reports about VDIS collections crossing Rs 5,600 crore and that it might touch Rs 7,000 crore were ''baseless''. However, he said he was more than satisfied with the ''tremendous response'' and it had brought into the tax net a new milieu of taxpayers with several middle class and upper class persons volunteering to declare their undisclosed income. It had also ''destigmatised'' tax payment with many persons thronging the income tax offices across the length and breadth of the country, he added.Asked what the revenue department's expectations were
about VDIS collections, Singh said he could not give any figures at this stage. ``All I can say is all reports about figures are way off the mark,'' he said, adding that the exact quantum of collections would be made known on January 5, after getting the figures from all the centres. Though there were no targets fixed for VDIS collections, some estimates were made when working out how much money should be spent on advertisements.It was then decided that one per cent of the expected collections be spent on advertisements. Going by this calculation, the collections were expected to be around Rs 3,000 crore as nearly Rs 30 crore was said to have been spent on advertisements. Reports from Chennai said more than 15,000 applications have been received in Tamil Nadu with Chennai alone receiving 400. It included several film personalities from the south but there were no reports so far of any politician or bureaucrat declaring undisclosed income under the scheme.Meanwhile, the tax authorities have evolved a
computerised data bank of potential tax assessees for post-VDIS follow up.Our Calcutta bureau adds: The income tax department here is preparing to crack down on new property owners who have so far not filed declarations under VDIS. The investigation wing of the tax department has prepared a selective list of people who have built or acquired houses over the past few years. Sources said that persons on the list who have not come forward to declare their incomes under VDIS will be investigated or raided as the case warrants. Based on market intelligence, similiar lists of people with undeclared jewellery, silver utensils and so on have been prepared. Declarations under VDIS from Calcutta have trebled in the last one month since the time it was launched. Top officials from the tax department were unwilling to reveal actual figures but sources said that they hoped to end up with at least 15 per cent of the all-India declarations. The sources said that so far the number of declarations had crossed 5,000. In
terms of figures this region is expected to yield more than Rs 1,000 crore. The Calcutta office of the Reserve Bank of India is dedicating its entire infrastructure to cater to tax declarants. Apart from the 23 receipt counters which it already has, extra counters normally used for receipts of sales tax and note processing will be made available. All the available personnel have been put to work at the counters, said RBI sources. Most of the volume of work is expected to be handled by the State Bank of India. The city-based banks and some of the smaller banks are reportedly finding its difficult to handle the rush involved in the process.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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