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INCOME TAX DEPARTMENT TO AIM AT 50 MILLION ASSESSEES BY 2003-4: SINHA

FM ASKS CBDT TO EVOLVE A CLEAR-CUT TRANSFER POLICY BASED ON PERFORMANCE

IRRITANT PROCEDURAL PROVISIONS OF IT ACT TO BE REVIEWED

    Speaking on the occasion, Shri Sinha called upon the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to evolve a transfer policy based solely on performance of officers. He said that durability of tenure would enable officers to understand the complexities of a particular charge and thereby perform better. Shri Sinha suggested that the performance of an officer may be judged on the basis of revenue collected, disposal of pending cases, increase in number of assessees, level of computerisation achieved and efforts made to improve the image of the department. He cautioned that the Ministry would take a very strict view of any pressures for transfer to preferred posts.

    The Minister directed the CBDT to prepare a list of all such procedural provisions of the Income Tax Act which are considered inconvenient or irritating by the tax payers so that they may be taken up during the forthcoming pre-Budget discussions. At the same time, the Minister said, the department has to go all out to improve tax compliance. He urged the officials to address the twin problems of tax evasion and avoidance of tax. It is here, Shri Sinha pointed out that computerisation can play a very important role in bringing more and more people under tax net.

    Shri Sinha expressed satisfaction at the 40% jump in direct taxes collection upto October 2000. He suggested that instead of getting complacent, it should be analysed as to why in some circles, the targets have not been met. He called for a more pro-active approach on the part of officers which results in new and innovative ways of bringing tax-evaders into the tax net.

    The Minister took note of the progress made in issuing Permanent Account Number (PAN) to individual tax-payers. "But final satisfaction would come when we are able to issue PAN in 100 per cent cases", he added. Shri Sinha informed that there has been a demand from various quarters, for instance Andhra Government, to evolve PAN as Common Business Identifier. He also called for greater co-operation between Central and State tax authorities.

    Shri Sinha said that it is a good sign that tax-GDP Ratio is rising in respect of direct taxes. He pointed out that as the potential for reduction in government expenditure is somewhat limited, the only way to generate funds for the Budget is through realisation of more and more taxes.

    Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Chairman, CBDT, Shri Balasubramanian said that the stress in the current year would be on processing of salary returns through the computerised system. He remarked that the Department is fully alive to the grievances of tax-payers which may be classified into delay in refunds/disposal of appeals, making high pitched assessments in scrutiny cases, resorting to coercive recovery action and harassment in cases of searches and surveys. The Chairman assured that administrative measures towards redressal of all these grievances are being taken on a priority basis.

FERTILIZER PRODUCTION FOR SEPTEMBER 2000

    The estimated production of fertilizers during September, 2000 was 9.62 lakh MTs of nitrogen against the target of 9.60 lakh MTs and that of phosphate was 3.11 lakh Mts against the target of 3.65 lakh MTs. Production in the corresponding month of last year was 9.10 lakh MTs of nitrogen and that of phosphate was 3.03 lakh MTs. Production of urea was 17.37 lakh MTs against the target of 16.95 lakh MTs. Production of nitrogen for the month of September, 2000 exceeded the target but phosphate production was slightly less than the target due to raw material limitation and erratic natural gas & power supply.

    The overall capacity utilisation in September, 2000 was 99.4% for Nitrogen and 83.8% for Phosphate.

    During September, 2000, 17.18 lakh MTs urea was despatched to the States against the target of 12.55 lakh MTs. Cumulative availability of urea by the end of September, 2000 was 116.97 lakh MTs. This is 104% of the revised ECA allocation of 112.35 lakh MTs for the season. The demand of urea has been met for all the States during Kharif, 2000.

    There were no imports of urea during September’2000 and so far during the current Kharif, 2000 season.

During the month under review about 0.67 lakh MTs of DAP and 3.56 lakh MTs MOP have been imported. The cumulative arrivals for the current year of DAP and MOP in the country have been 5.70 lakh MTs and 13.96 lakh MTs respectively.