The Hindu Business Line : I-T staff walk out over large taxpayer units plan

The proposal
Senior personnel from the I-T Department and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) will man the large taxpayer units.
Large taxpayers, who have paid excise duty of over Rs 5 crore in a year and assessed to income tax in any of the five specified metros, would be entitled to avail themselves of this scheme.
The large taxpayer would be assessed to three taxes — excise, service tax and corporation tax — in the large taxpayer units only.

STRIKE TIME: The deserted income-tax office at Mayur Bhavan in the Capital on Thursday as employees staged a walkout protesting the Centre's move to set up large taxpayer units. - Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , March 16

Income-Tax Department employees today staged a walkout across the country against the Centre's move to set up large taxpayer units (LTPUs). A section of non-gazetted employees also threatened to go on an indefinite strike by the end of the month over the issue.

The main contention of the protesting employees was that the proposed LTPUs would lead to their redundancy and that most of the high-value returns would get filed in these proposed units in Delhi, Mumbai , Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai.

As per the proposed LTPU scheme, senior personnel from the I-T Department and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) will man the LTPUs. Large taxpayers, who have paid excise duty of over Rs 5 crore in a year and assessed to income-tax in any of the five specified metros, would be entitled to avail themselves of this scheme.

Besides a reduction in compliance and transaction costs, the large taxpayers opting for the scheme can also benefit from the facility of filing their excise return, corporate tax return and service tax return at a LTPU without any fresh registration.

Moreover, the interface with the I-T Department would also be reduced for the large taxpayers. The LTPUs are likely to be set up at venues to be suggested by industry and away from the I-T Department offices.

The large taxpayer would be assessed to three taxes — excise, service tax and corporation tax — in the LTPU only. The facility for e-filing and e-payment of all taxes would be available round the clock.

Manufacturers with multiple excise paying units around the country and fulfilling the eligibility criteria are likely to particularly benefit from this initiative as they can get their assessments done at the LTPU. This would enable uniformity in assessment practices, especially in the case of excise duty.

Allaying fears of the employees, the Revenue Secretary, Mr K. M. Chandrasekhar, said that there is no need for any apprehension that the LTPU would result in redundancy in the tax department.

"There is plenty of work that would be available in areas such as audit, checking and tackling of evasion etc," Mr Chandrasekhar told Business Line.

Stating that consultations with industry were still on, Mr Chandrasekhar hinted that it may take at least another couple of months before some finality is reached on the modalities of operating the LTPU system.

"We have had a round of consultations with industry in Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. There is still Bangalore and Mumbai where consultations have to be held. We have indicated to industry the advantages of facilitation that they could obtain from the LTPU facility," Mr Chandrasekhar said.

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I-T staff walk out over large taxpayer units plan