Finance minister Yashwant Sinha has said the government is planning to amend the Income-Tax Act to make it mandatory for the assessees going on appeal on I-T dues to make part payments before the beginning of proceedings.
Sinha told the income-tax commissioners' conference yesterday that the move was aimed at preventing litigants from taking advantage of the time-consuming proceedings.
He said the government was also considering fixing graded percentage of advance payment for litigants, depending on whether it was their first or second appeal.
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The number of income tax assessees went up to a record 2.14 crore at the end of March this year against 1.8 crore in the same period in 1999. The number was 1 crore at the end of March 31, 1997.
The department is proposing to raise it to 2.78 crore by the end of the current fiscal. This means an increase of nearly 200 per cent in four years.
Addressing the conference, Central Board for Direct Taxes chairperson S K Nigam said this year too, the department would push to widen the tax base.
An analysis of the statistics furnished to the commissioners reveals that out of the total 27.25 lakh assessees added up to February 2000, 5.99 lakh filed their dues under the one-by-six scheme. Delivering the inaugural address of the meet, revenue minister V Dhananjaya Kumar maintained that the department had done well in exceeding the tax targets despite difficult circumstances due to the Kargil conflict and the cyclone.