The Hindu Business Line : ‘About 100 cos have not paid TDS in AP’

“We have conducted surveys (surprise checks) on 1,000 companies and detected that 100 of them have not been paying TDS to the I-T Department,” Mr A. Bhaskar Reddy, Commissioner of Income Tax, Andhra Pradesh, told newspersons here on Thursday.

The department would soon initiate penal action on those companies which are keeping the TDS funds with themselves, he added.

The TDS contribution in the entire income-tax collection of the State is about 40 per cent. In 2008-09, the collection towards TDS was Rs 6,153 crore (as on March 10, 2009) against Rs 4,750 crore collected in the corresponding period of the previous financial year, he said.

In the current financial year, the department had conducted 471 surveys which had resulted in detection of unaccounted income to the tune of Rs 436 crore, involving a tax effect of Rs 118 crore. “The real-estate and construction sector topped in the cases of concealed income, followed by retail and wholesale traders,” Mr Reddy said. The original budget collection target for the current financial year for AP region was fixed at Rs 19,193 crore. “However, this has been lowered by Rs 500 crore to Rs 18,693 crore in view of the current economic slowdown,” the official said.

So far, the budget collections stood at Rs 13,482 crore (as on March 10, 2009) against Rs 10,667 crore collected in the year-ago period.

The department is also expecting speedy payment of advance tax by the companies. “The due date for payment of last instalment of advance tax is March 15 for this fiscal year. Non-payment of advance tax within the due date would result in levy on interest,” Mr Reddy said.

So far, Rs 6,000 crore has been collected under advance tax, he added.

The department had refunded Rs 1,294 crore due to assessees up to March 10, 2009 while over 14 lakh returns were received against 13 lakh last year.

“There is also expansion of tax base as 83,162 new assessees were added till February this year,” the official said.

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