Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hoped that the revenue targets fixed for Direct Taxes for the current Financial Year 2014-15 would not only be achieved but would also be surpassed.
The current year target for Direct Tax collections is Rs. 7,36,221/- crore. The Finance Minister said that in order to achieve this target, the officers of Income Tax Department will have to work with highest standard of ethics. He said that credibility of the Department is its biggest asset.
Jaitley was addressing the senior officers of the Income Tax Department after inaugurating the two-day Annual Conference of Principal Chief Commissioners, Principal Director Generals, Chief Commissioners and Director Generals of Income Tax here today.
The Finance Minister said though the Government is making full efforts to bring back the black money stashed abroad, but he also asked all the senior officers to focus their efforts to unearth black money within the country which is also quite large.
He said the job of the officers of the Income Tax Department is very difficult in the sense that on the one hand they have to achieve the tax collection targets and on the other hand to play the role of tax facilitator for the assesse.
The Finance Minister said that officers are duty bound to work in a non-adversarial, non-intrusive, transparent and fair manner, yet they have to deal firmly with those trying to evade taxes due from them to the Department.
Jaitley said that the Government is making full efforts to bring back the black money stashed abroad but the officers of the Department have to make equally serious efforts to unearth black money within the country.
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Earlier, addressing the officers, Shaktikanta Das, Secretary (Revenue) said that the senior officers have to find innovative means to achieve their revenue targets and work in a non-adversarial and non-intrusive manner.
He said that the officers of the Department have to work as a facilitator and achieve targets by using fair and transparent means.
He said that the role of the senior officers of the rank of Principal Chief Commissioners and Principal Director Generals is also to guide the junior officers and staff working under them to function in a similar manner. He said that the focus and efforts of the officers of the department should be to reduce tax arrears which are to the tune of Rs. 4.00 lakh crore and higher tax recovery.