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Persistent tax defaulters may face tough times as the income tax authorities are now studying the possibility of going public with the names of such ‘chronic tax defaulters'.
Making public this threat, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Wednesday said that it has constituted a seven-member committee to examine, among other things, the “feasibility and methodology” of putting the names of “chronic tax defaulters” in the public domain.
In the current wave of transparency and anti-corruption drive, there are demands to put the list of “chronic defaulters” in the public domain. Such a move, it is felt in certain quarters, would put the onus on the taxpayer to liquidate the demand.
The committee, which is being headed by Ms Anita Kapur, DGIT (Admn), has also been asked to suggest ways to recover income tax demands from assessees who are at large and also in situations where no assets are available for recovery.
The terms of reference for the committee includes suggesting modalities for utilisation of the information available with the financial intelligence unit (FIU-IND) and the Directorate of Income Tax (systems) for the recovery of outstanding demand in such cases.
The committee would also examine the possibilities of engaging outside agencies to locate the whereabouts of non-traceable assessees or their assets and also unknown/undisclosed assets owned by the assessees with inadequate assets vis-à-vis the outstanding demand.
It has been asked to propose a reward scheme for informants who supply information about such tax defaulters and which results in collection of the outstanding demand.
Attempts are being made from time-to-time to recover the outstanding demand by using the asset and bank information available with the FIU and annual information report of Income Tax Department, an official release said.
The list of defaulters is also matched with the asset data available.
There is good possibility to locate some assets to realise this outstanding demand, the release added.
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