Rampant cash money purchases in service industries like resorts, high-end brand name sales, healthcare facilities and IVF centers require to be signed in a “non-intrusive” fashion, the CBDT has actually lately asked the Income Tax Department.
The peak body for straight tax obligation management in the nation– the Central Board of Direct Taxes– has actually additionally asked the tax obligation division to embark on “concerted efforts” to recuperate arrear needs which have actually been seeing a “steep rise” considering that the last fiscal year.
The CBDT lately provided a yearly activity strategy file called the Central Action Plan (CAP) 2024-25.
Close Monitoring of These Segments
The division recognized several of business, such as resorts, reception halls, high-end brand name stores, IVF centers, healthcare facilities, developer apparel shops, and NRI allocation clinical university seats, where the non-adherence to these guidelines and big cash money purchases was being located.
“Such sources will have to be identified and a verification exercise could be conducted by calling for information in a non-intrusive manner,” the CBDT routed the tax obligation division.
An elderly policeman informed information company PTI that the level of money in the economic climate can be assessed from the truth that throughout the 2023-24 financial, the tax obligation division placed 1,100 searches or raids throughout the nation to inspect tax obligation evasion, causing the seizure of properties totaling up to around Rs 2,500 crore out of which Rs 1,700 crore remained in cash money.
Tracking Cash Transactions
Senior authorities claimed that purchases over Rs 2 lakh in cash money were called for to be reported via a declaration of monetary deal (SFT) by banks however that was not taking place.
“While examining such reports, it is noticed that the circumvention of these provisions is widely prevalent,” the Board informed the IT division.
“Further, although section 139A requires PAN (permanent account number) to be provided or obtained in specified transactions, there is no reporting/verification mechanism for determining the compliance with this obligation,” it claimed.
In any kind of situation, it claimed, “high value” usage expense requires to be validated with info concerning the taxpayer and for that reason, it is important to determine the resources which might be associated with feasible circumvention.
Increasing Arrear Demand
The CBDT additionally shared issue over the numbers of arrear need “increasing” over the previous years, stating it has actually risen from Rs 24,51,099 crore, as on April 1, 2023, to Rs 43,00,232 crore on April 1, 2024.
“This is a very steep rise which requires immediate and urgent action,” it claimed.
“Keeping in view the past trends of the arrear demand and cash collections, it is imperative that concerted efforts continue to be made to reverse the trend of increasing arrear demand and to initiate the process of reducing the figure to more manageable levels,” it included.
The Board additionally proclaimed in the activity strategy that a “special team” headed by a Principal Commissioner of I-T be created in each area by September end to act and recuperate tax obligation defaults from the leading 5,000 instances– concerning 60% of the complete need of over Rs 43 lakh crore.
The unique groups will certainly find physical documents and various other information of the leading 5,000 instances with a “much deeper and fast evaluation,” it claimed.
Data Mining and Data Analytics
The CBDT additionally notified the IT authorities that “new opportunities for identification of potential taxpayers have opened up due to data mining and data analytics” and efficient use such information might lead to “identification of a large number of potential taxpayers.”
“The case of non-filers and those whose ITRs (income tax returns) do not match with financial transactions done by them are selected based on rules through management information system and taken up for e-Verification. The outcome of e-Verification results in widening and deepening of taxpayer base,” it claimed.
The Board claimed the tax obligation division has actually been provided a target to include the present financial 10% even more income tax return filers to what the filer base went to completion of 2023-24.
(With PTI inputs)
