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Mohan Padmanabhan

KOLKATA, Jan 1

THE West Bengal zone of the Income-Tax department has achieved a substantial increase in the number of new returns under the one by six scheme - as per new proviso to section 139 (1) - giving a big boost to the department's efforts towards widening of the tax base.

Speaking to Business Line on his last day of work as Chief Commissioner of Calcutta-I before assuming charge as Member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) from Tuesday, Mr Satrajit Choudhury said that as on November 30, 2001 some 95,000 new returns have been received as compared to the 16,000 for the same period of last year.

He added that the extension of the scheme to many more urban centres have brought in the results.

Stating that restructuring of the department, which took nearly a year and half for completion, has now been successfully carried out, with all officers having taken up positions.

Transfer of records has also been completed in a satisfactory manner.

Stating that assessment was picking up, he said that the major problem being faced was with regard to filling up posts of joint commissioners (JCs) at the various ranges, following the restructuring exercise.

Each range, besides a commissioner, will now have three JCs.

There is an acute shortage of JCs for most of these ranges, he added.

In this context, Mr Choudhury said that coordinated efforts were on to achieve downsizing of nearly five per cent of the total staff, without resorting to any kind of retrenchment, on an all-India basis.

Re-deployment of staff for manning the offices in mofussil areas was being carried out with the full co-operation of the staff associations, he added.

As a result of the massive restructuring, the number of Chief Commissioners and Commissioners, and other officials, has increased considerably, introducing a sea change in jurisdiction levels.

New ranges have also been set up by either bifurcating or reconstituting the old ones.

On the position of scrutiny cases, Mr Choudhury said that it has been decided to pick 30 company cases and 60 non-corporate cases for scrutiny every year.

This is in accordance with the policy put in place by the Government.

On the collection front, the eastern zone was still enjoying a five per cent plus and is confident of meeting the target of Rs 4,108 crore by March 31.

Online processing of salaried returns, which has already begun in the department centrally, would pick up steam in the zone once full connectivity was achieved, he added.

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