Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has ruled out any amnesty for Income Tax defaulters, on the lines of amnesty given to Service Tax defaulters announced in the Budget. In an interview to PTI, he said huge amount of data is being mined and notices have been issued to 35,000 people. Another 35,000 notices are being issued next week. He hoped that more and more people would declare their true income. Mr. Chidambaram said that the Central Processing Centre at Gazhiabad will track every single TDS deduction to find out whether the money has been remitted to the government and TDS certificates issued to the deductee.Mr. Chidambaram said that the purpose of offering one time amnesty to Service Tax evaders is the huge gap of ten lakh registered assesses. But they will have to pay the tax not only for the current year but for five years to avoid penalty.He said the number of 42,800 people of relatively affluent in the country was deliberately used to shock the nation about such a low number. He reiterated that the ten per cent surcharge levied on them would be only for one year. Mr. Chidambaram said he believes in stable tax rate, non-adversarial tax administration and a fair and just dispute resolution mechanism. The Finance Minister said that if the RBI cuts rate it will help the economy to grow at a higher rate of 6.5 per cent in the next fiscal.He announced that the first all women bank will start operating from November this year through six branches spread across the country. Mr. Chidambaram hoped that the Insurance and Pension Bill would be passed in the current Budget session of the parliament and the BJP would back the legislations.AIR Correspondent reports, in his Budget speech, the Finance Minister had made it clear that while the government does not want to put an additional tax burden on the people, it is keen to ensure that everyone declares his true income and pays due taxes. That 35,000 people have not filed returns despite being served notices and another 35,000 people are being sent notices next week, underlines that a large number of people are hesitating to pay taxes. The message that the Finance Minister has sent is that there is no place now where one can hide his income. Just admit the true income and be proud.
News On AIR | March 3, 2013 8:58 PM
FM rules out any amnesty for Income Tax defaulters