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Bijoy Ghosh

LTU in Chennai: The Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, and the Revenue Secretary, Mr P.V. Bhide, at the inauguration of the Large Taxpayer Unit in Chennai on Sunday. Mr Chidambaram said the UPA Government is making a determined effort to change the face of the income-tax department to make it more taxpayer-friendly.

Our Bureau

Chennai, Feb. 3 The UPA Government is making a determined effort to change the face of the income-tax department to make it more taxpayer friendly, according to the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram.

Addressing the inaugural of a Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU), an exclusive facility for large income tax, excise and service taxpayers, he said, in popular perception the tax departments are seen as those that do not provide any service to the people. The Ministry is doing its best to impress on the department to be friendly to taxpayers and service oriented. This would contribute to greater tax compliance.

Moderate and stable tax rates lead to higher compliance, increased revenues and eventually lower tax rates. This is a global trend and there is no reason why it should be any different in India, Mr Chidambaram said.

The LTU is a modern office facility, which will be a single window service provider for central excise duties, service tax and corporate and income tax. The Chennai LTU covers taxpayers paying central excise duty or service tax of Rs 5 crore or more and advance income tax of Rs 10 crore or more. The LTU will act more as a facilitator than an administrator with clients assisted by one senior level officer designated as a client executive.

The services include single-point e-lining of central excise, corporate tax and service tax returns, Internet payment, adjusting excess tax against future payments, transfer of Cenvat credit from one unit to another, duty free transfer of inputs, capital goods and semi finished and finished products. This is the second LTU to go on stream. The first was opened in Bangalore in November 2006 and more are likely to be opened in Mumbai and Delhi in March and April.

Mr Chidambaram said over 25 taxpayers who together contribute over Rs 8,000 crore to the exchequer have joined the Chennai LTU. These include the Chennai Petroleum Corporation, MRF Ltd, the Murugappa Group, Hyundai Motor India and Indian Overseas Bank. The department would encourage more to register with the facility.

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