The Finance Ministry’s initiative to track non-filers of income tax returns seems to be yielding dividends for the exchequer.

The Income-Tax Department mopped up taxes of over Rs 600 crore in the last three months from some high-priority cases out of the identified target segment of 12.20 lakh non-filers with PAN cards.

Letters were sent in three batches to 1.05 lakh high-priority cases seeking to know whether the person had filed his income tax return or not.

Preliminary data analysis showed that a large number of taxpayers had filed returns and paid self- assessment tax after initiation of this exercise.

The Finance Ministry has decided to send another 70,000 letters this month to certain high-priority cases.

Of these, the first batch of 35,000 letters was dispatched on May 20, an official release said.

A compliance management cell has also been set up to ensure follow-up action on the cases where letters had been sent.

This cell will track return filing and tax payment of the target segment.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has urged all taxpayers to disclose their true income and pay appropriate taxes within the current financial year.

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