Black money law was intended to be harsh: CBDT chief

The new black money law introduced by the government was intended to be harsh as the normal law had not been able to address the problem for many years, a top finance ministry official said at an ASSOCHAM event.

We owe it to the country to ensure that at least the law is clear and stringent so that the menace could be handled, said Ms Anita Kapur, chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) while inaugurating the 12th International Tax Conference organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

She also said that government is willing to issue its response on industry's concerns/queries raised on procedures to be followed under the new black money law.

We have been issuing FAQs, on compliance window we issued three sets of responses to the queries raised, we are open to issue responses to what you find problematic in the procedures on the black money, said Ms Kapur.

She also said that CBDT was trying to address issues on the administration side but advised the industry not to overplay such issues.

We do not want to recover taxes which we are not entitled to recover, we want taxes which as per our law we have been obligated to recover, said Ms Kapur.

Less than one per cent of taxpayers get to see our offices, 99 per cent of taxpayers do not need to come to our offices, we accept their returns, we do a non-human interface processing of cases, we do issue refunds without human intervention, she added.

There are 3-4 lakh cases in which the tax department has a role, further said Ms Kapur. I am also surprised with the noise in the system because everybody talks about these cases and out of these cases 30 per cent do not even travel to the first level appeal and assessment of the assessing officers is accepted.

She also sought taxpayers' cooperation to address these issues.

Terming the Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) project as 'movement in the right direction,' Ms Kapur said that the industry should look at the intent and not try to clutter up the system with ingenious and imaginative interpretation of what internationally is a movement to lay down clear rules of where the income will be taxed and how the tax rights will be allocated between different jurisdictions.

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