Pay advance tax promptly, urges I-T Dept

The income-tax assessees should pay the last (March) instalment of advance tax promptly and not defer it and show it as self-assessment tax at a later date, thereby denying the IT Department of its collections during the current financial year, according to Mr. K. Satyanarayana, Chief Commissioner of IT, Vizag.

At a press meet here on Wednesday, he made the appeal to the assessees and said that the department would take a stern view of it, if they did not comply with the request, and coercive steps may be called for. However, he sought the co-operation of the assessees in the matter. He said that as against the target of Rs 2,028.19 crore, the IT Department could collect only Rs 1,273.24 crore till date. He urged the assessees to pay the advance tax before March 15, the last date.

He said that during the last financial year (2009-10), the Vizag zone - comprising the five coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari and West Godavari — had been set a target of Rs 1,900 crore and the actual collections amounted to only Rs 1,642 crore. “The tax base in the region is very narrow. The population in the five districts is 2.5 crore and the assessees are only 3,07,732. Only 15,000 new assessees have been registered in the current financial year,” he said.

IT refunds

The Chief Commissioner said the Department had, so far, processed 2,39,331 IT returns and refunded Rs 323.09 crore during the current financial year as against Rs 154.18 crore last year during the corresponding period.

He said the department was taking all steps to make the refund process easy for the assessees. The IT Department had also detected undisclosed income of Rs 138 crore during the year in surveys and search operations. He appealed to all those deducting tax at source to remit the amount promptly to the department, as otherwise it would attract penal consequences.

The Commissioner of Income-Tax - Mr S.S Mishra and Mr I. Suresh Babu - also spoke in addition to Mr Nathan Raul, IT Commissioner (Appeals). The Deputy Commissioner, Mr C.V. Pavana Kumar, and Mr. M. Alwar, IT official, participated in it.