Hyd's rich report just Rs 5 lakh income

Income Tax authorities are not convinced

A majority of the assesses residing in the prime Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills areas of Hyderabad city pay on average Rs 36,000 in tax representing an annual income of Rs 5 lakh. This is something unexpected about the residents of these areas where only the rich can afford to live or own a house.

In the eyes of Income Tax authorities, however, this has got to do with the concealment of real income by the majority of these households.

According to Suresh Jandhyala, chief commissioner of Income Tax, AP 3, there are about 55,000 income tax assessees in Range 6, which covers Banjara and Jubilee Hills.

The department received a total of Rs 325 crore by way of personal income tax from them in the last financial year 2012-13, of which the top 600 assessees alone paid Rs 100 crore. This leaves an overwhelming majority of tax payers reporting an annual income of just Rs 5 lakh, Jandhyala explained at a meeting organised by the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Fapcci) here on Friday.

Though there has been an improvement in income tax collections in general in Andhra Pradesh, there is a lot of scope for further improvement in tax compliance, he said, citing the data of the city's rich areas.

The situation is no different in Guntur range that covers the districts of Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore, the first and the third are considered to be among the richest areas in AP, he said.

There are about 145,000 assessees in this range. Of them, 70,000 are salaried assesses and remaining non-salaried persons.

However, only 480 assesses among them have reported an income of over and above Rs 10 lakh, according to him.

AP registers 15% growth in direct tax collections
Bibhab Dutta, chief commissioner of Income Tax, AP-1, earlier said direct tax collections in AP rose 15 per cent to Rs 29,723 core in 2012-13 as compared with Rs 25,834 crore in the previous financial year.

However, corporate tax, which accounts for 65 per cent of the total direct tax collections grew about 7 per cent to Rs 18,923 crore while the personal income tax payouts rose over 32 per cent to Rs 10,807 crore.

He said problems still persisted in areas like correct reporting, payment of capital gains tax and self-assessment tax. Over 1.9 million returns were filed during the last financial year, according to him.