The Hindu Business Line : Tax dept must put faith in tech: Chidambaram

FACE OF TECHNOLOGY: The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram (on screen), inaugurating the video-conferencing facility in the Income-Tax Department in the Capital on Tuesday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi April 10 The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Tuesday urged the tax department to put faith in technology, keep channels of communication open and constantly upgrade the quality of information for achieving the "little more ambitious" revenue target for 2007-08.

Inaugurating the video-conferencing facility of the income-tax department at North Block here on Tuesday, Mr Chidambaram pointed out that direct taxes would be tax of the future and that more taxes should be direct taxes in a growing economy.

"The role of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the tax department would become more and more important in the coming days.

The quality of services (provided to the taxpayer) would become a benchmark for governance", he said.

The share of direct taxes in the overall tax revenues of the Centre has been on the rise since 1990-91.

Fiscal 2006-07 is likely to be the first year in the post-reform period when direct taxes would touch almost 50 per cent of the Centre's gross tax revenues.

In 1990-91, direct taxes accounted for less than one-fifth of the centre's gross tax receipts.

Mr Chidambaram agreed to certain field formations' view that there has to be speedy decisions, especially at the headquarters, to improve the efficiency of the department and that technology tools like video-conferencing could be used to speed up the process of decision-making.

He also said that he was confident that, when the final data comes, the revised target of Rs 2,29,272 crore for 2006-07 would be achieved.

Video-conferencing

The video-conferencing facility connects North Block to the 46 cities headed by the Chief Commissioners of Income-Tax and the Director General, National Academy of Direct Taxes. At the North Block, this facility has been provided at different locations.

The CBDT Chairperson, Ms Indira Bhargava, said the facility would act as "productivity booster" for the tax department as the Finance Ministry would now be able to interact regularly with the field offices as and when required.