New Delhi, Feb 5, 2012, (PTI): Come next financial year, the PAN card is
likely to become the most potent tool for the Income Tax Department to
unearth black money, tax evasion and instances of criminal financing in
the country.
A recent directive of the Central Board of Direct
Taxes
(CBDT) to the I-T Dept has asked its officials to launch a special
drive against those who have“not furnished their PAN (Permanent Account
Number)” while entering into high value transactions.
The drive will end on March 20, eleven days before the current fiscal closes.
The measure has been taken on the recommendations of a high-level
committee appointed by the CBDT last year to find those taxpayers who
have gone missing without paying taxes, pegged at Rs 1,01,836 crore at
present.
The committee under I-T Director General (Administration) was set up to
examine pending cases on I-T demands under the categories “assesses not
traceable” and “no assets/ inadequate assets for recovery”.
A top Finance Ministry official, involved in the planning of the latest
drive, explains the idea behind the exercise which is being conducted
across the country.
“The PAN card data which the I-T will obtain during the two month drive
which started on February 20 will bolster the 360-degree profiling
computer-based data-bank of the department. The new PANs will be fed
into the system and then whenever a transaction is done using that
identity, a flow chart of all credit/debit card, banking and other
transactions from it will get displayed for the officer investigating,”
the official said.
“The 10-digit alphanumeric number (PAN) allotted by the I-T Department
to taxpayers will be the most potent tool for the department to unearth
tax crimes and evasion,” the official said.
This will not only bring about a mechanism of non-intrusive
investigation by department without troubling the taxpayer but will also
streamline the financial data of each taxpayer for his assessing
officer, the official added.
The charter of the drive mandates that taxpayers “will be required” to
furnish their PAN if they already have one or “apply immediately for PAN
if they do not have one”.
“The department has tried to kill two birds with one stone. While the
high-level committee found that a number of pending recovery cases
reached a dead end because of non-availability of PAN cards, it also
found that the PAN database itself is not complete. So while the
committee had mandated I-T officials to go door-to-door to intimate such
taxpayers, it will now be done under the umbrella of this directive,”
the official said.
The CBDT has also asked in the latest directive that such people will
also be required to explain the source of the high value investments,
deposits, expenditure and whether these were properly explained in the
I-T returns filed by them.
“Persons who have not properly accounted for the high value transactions
are required to pay due taxes and file the I-T return within this
financial year, March 31, 2012,” the directive said.
“A number of these people are those who figured in the probe of the high-level committee,” another official said.
In view of the present drive, the department has also reportedly decided
not to publish the names of such defaulters who owe more than Rs 10
crore as unpaid taxes, considering it as an “unfriendly measure” as of
now.
The CBDT has also spelt out that there are “penal consequences” of either not reporting or obtaining a PAN card.
Courtesy : http://tkbsen.com/
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