The revenue department has asked its field formations to raise the number of cases they would take up for detailed scrutiny this year.
The department has told all income-tax ranges in metropolitan cities that they should compile a list of top 250 non-corporate assessees whom they would subject to detailed scrutiny.
In non-metropolitan cities the number has been set at 200, which becomes progressively less for smaller urban centres.
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The commissioners on each range have been asked to complete the exercise by the month-end.
They will have to complete the enumeration by then, for the department to dispatch notices, if required, to these high-value assessees.
According to government sources, the step is part of the programme to fine-tune the scrutiny of tax returns that the department is undertaking to enhance tax revenue collection in this fiscal.
While the revenue department receives more than 2.5 crore returns every fiscal, it usually conducts detailed scrutiny of only a few cases in every range.
In 2001-02, the department conducted no scrutiny at all because it was involved in a cadre restructuring exercise for income-tax officials, which entailed largescale transfer to and from different zones in the country.
Traditionally, each range takes up about 40 cases for detailed scrutiny every year because it is difficult to do justice to more cases, given the existing constraints of staff strength within the department.
However, with the scope of the one-by-six scheme to rope in new taxpayers, achieving saturation in terms of additional tax collections and no significant other sources of new revenue opening up, the department has had to fall back on its existing bank of assesses.
In 2002-03, the revenue department has targeted a 33 per cent growth in the direct tax revenue, from Rs 73,497 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 91,144 crore in 2002-03.
The department expects that if the scrutiny of high net worth individuals are taken up midway through the year, the serving of the demand notices and the subsequent flow of additional tax revenue would be through before March.