Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged tax administrators to bridge the trust gap with taxpayers and turn mentors, setting an ambitious goal of almost doubling the taxpayer base to 100 million from around the current 540 million. During the inauguration of a two-day meet, Modi urged senior direct and indirect tax officers to remove the "fear of harassment" from minds of assesses and emphasised that their behaviour should be "soft and sober".
The tax department was under scrutiny after taxpayers complained of harassment and the BJP government coined the term 'tax terrorism' to describe notices sent out to large companies, ranging from Vodafone to Cairn and Shell for recovery of dues that ended up in litigation. Although the Modi government has sought to streamline processes by insisting on e-filing and reducing face-to-face interface, PM's statement indicates that there is a lot of scope for improvement.
While he refrained from talking about black money, Modi did point out that nearly 92 per cent of direct taxes came through advance tax payments, self-assessment and tax deducted at source, with 42,000 cadre of tax officials and junior staff chasing the remaining 8 per cent. He also suggested that the tax department should look to expand the base although he did not provide any deadline to meet the target of 100 million income tax assesses. "There is no shortage of good officers and there is no shortage of good people. So, why is there a trust deficit?" Modi was quoted as saying.
