Concerned over latest shortfall in TDS revenue
collections, the Income
Tax department has decided to enhance prosecution action against large
defaulters with the help of its specialised electronic database and processing
centre created for this exclusive task.
The department's Central Processing Centre-Tax
Deducted at Source (CPC-TDS) based in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh has been
instructed to inform and timely update the taxman about defaulters under this
category, which is witnessing a 50 per cent slump in growth this time as
compared to the last financial year.
While according to the standard operating
procedures, any default of delayed TDS payment above Rs 1 lakh is mandatorily
taken up for prosecution, the said data centre has been re-instructed by CBDT
(apex policy-making body of the I-T department) to "generate a list of
non-filers of TDS statement within one month of the due date and communicate it
to the Assessing Officer (TDS) with a copy to the I-T Commissioner of
TDS."
"CBDT has now asked CPC and the I-T department to scrupulously adhere to these guidelines and even prepare an advance plan for checking default in this regard as TDS is an important category of taxes under the overall direct tax kitty of the central government. A slow growth rate has been seen in this category recently but things will shore up," a senior I-T officer said.
"CBDT has now asked CPC and the I-T department to scrupulously adhere to these guidelines and even prepare an advance plan for checking default in this regard as TDS is an important category of taxes under the overall direct tax kitty of the central government. A slow growth rate has been seen in this category recently but things will shore up," a senior I-T officer said.
CPC-TDS provides comprehensive data on
compliance behaviour of the deductors, defaults details, PAN errors,
besides helping the deductor or the department to identity and rectify mistakes
in this domain. TDS is deducted and collected from categories like salaries,
immovable property, rent and few other heads.
"The strategy to augment revenue through
TDS has to be a mix of enforcement, capacity building and leveraging of
information that is now available with the department through CPC (TDS),"
the officer said.
According to latest data, the growth in TDS
collections is less by 50 per cent this time as compared to the last period. In
the 2013-14 financial year, the growth under this head was 16.73 per cent while
in the current fiscal of 2014-15 the growth percentage is just 7.84 per cent.
Source:-The Economic Times
