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The government today asked tax defaulters to pay their dues along with interest and seek a penalty waiver as it sent letters to 35,000 more people, who had not filed their income-tax (I-T) returns.
“I know some of you are concerned about penalty. The I-T Act has a provision where a person voluntarily files his returns and pays the tax and interest income, the authorities can take a benign view and waive the penalty. They have done so in numerous cases in the past. This is your opportunity to file the return, pay interest and apply for waiver of penalty,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.
The finance ministry has now issued letters to about 105,000 non-filers in three lots of 35,000 each, reminding them to pay their income-tax dues or face the consequences. Of the 70,000 letters issued in the first two lots, about 10,000 people have already filed their returns.
About 135,000 electronic returns were filed between February 10 and March 10, compared with 108,000 in the corresponding period of the previous year — an increase of 15 per cent. As many as 17.7 million e-returns have been filed till March 10 this year, against 13.5 million in the year-ago period. This represents an increase of 35 per cent.
In the Finance Bill, 2013, the government has proposed a voluntary compliance scheme for service tax defaulters. The finance minister hoped a large proportion of one million registered assesses who had not filed returns would take advantage of this opportunity. He emphasised the government’s policy was clarity in tax laws — a stable tax regime and non-adversarial tax administration — a fair mechanism for dispute resolution and an independent judiciary.
