The Hindu Business Line : No perceptible impact of I-T ad campaign on assessees, say CAs

THE Income-Tax Department's high-pitched advertisement campaign reminding assessees to file their returns by October 31 deadline does not seem to have had a material impact on the taxpayers it was targeting, according to feedback received from the chartered accountant community.

The October-end deadline applied to big-ticket assessees whose accounts have to be audited by a practicing CA.

A cross section of practising CAs from across the country handling high-end clients told Business Line that they did not feel any perceptible change in the attitude of the assessees over the previous year.

"I have not spotted any discernible impact of the advertisement campaign by the I-T department. The October 31 deadline applies to serious taxpayers falling under the high-income bracket. They would have filed their returns in the normal course," Mr Ved Jain, a practicing CA and the Chairman, Direct Tax Committee of Assocham, said.

Mr Jain said that such a campaign should have been timed as a run-up to the July 31 deadline for filing returns by salaried employees. "The campaign might have helped if it had been unleashed before July end when the deadline for the salaried class ended," Mr Jain said.

Besides companies, the October 31 deadline applies to businessmen with an annual turnover of over Rs 40 lakh and professionals with earnings of over Rs 10 lakh. Overstepping the deadline attracts a penalty of 0.5 per cent of the turnover or Rs 1 lakh whichever is lower.

Mr Sachin Jindal, Proprietor, B.S. Jindal & Co, a Delhi-based CA firm, felt that there was no real change in the mindset of the taxpayers. "I don't think there has been much of an impact (of the I-T Department's campaign). The assessees covered in any case pay their taxes since their accounts have to be audited," Mr Jindal said.

Chartered accountants in Kolkata and Dehra Dun also felt there was only a very minimal change in the workload. "There have been enquiries on the impact of not meeting the deadline. But the urgency in filing the returns have been the same as last year," Mr Subir De, Partner, De Subir Kumar & Co, Kolkata, said.Mr Ashok Kashyap, Senior Partner, A.K. Kashyap & Co, Dehra Dun, said that most assessees prefer to meet the deadline to avoid the penalty. He, however, said that there were a few new assessees turning up at his office.

"More units are coming to Dehra Dun since it is a backward area with a number of tax concessions. So we are seeing some new assessees turning up," Mr Kashyap said.

When contacted, Finance Ministry officials said that it would take some time for them to gauge the fallout of the ad campaign since the data on returns would flow in only after a couple of weeks.

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