Of the forty-nine lakh PAN cards issued in Kolkata till date, the number of tax assesses were significantly lower at 25 lakh.
The Income Tax (IT) department, however, attributed it to the growing trend of issuance of PAN cards to students and non-tax payers.
"The PAN card is an important document and even students these days have them," said TK Chatterjee, Chief Commissioner of IT.
The department has, however, another thing to cheer about. The Income Tax collection in West Bengal --- the area under consideration also includes Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sikkim --- has overshot its target by 25 per cent but this is less than the national average of 30 per cent. Last year, the IT collection was Rs 9,770 crore but this year the department notched up a figure of Rs 12,099 crore. Kolkata alone accounted for Rs 11,500 crore as IT collection. The TDS growth has increased by 55 per cent than the previous year. “The economic buoyancy is definitely a reason for the higher IT collection,” Chatterjee said.