Search and seizure operations conducted by the Income Tax (Investigation) wing officials are not a revenue generating tool, Gopal Mukherjee, Director General of IT (investigation), eastern zone, said.
"Many feel that search and seizure operations are a revenue generating tool. It is not. It is a deterrent tool for checking tax evasion," Mukherjee said at an interaction at the MCC Chambers here today.
He said that nowadays, search and seizure operations were conducted in a professional manner and handled very delicately by the officials.
"We give due weightage to the dignity of the person as
his privacy gets invaded during the process," he pointed out.
This was the reason why CBDT had decided that an officer of the DG level would be entrusted to carry out the job and not anyone below that rank.
Allaying fears of the business community, he said that
not all search operations necessarily lead to seizures. Anything which was accounted for is not seized.
"There is also no target for survey operations by the department," he said.
"We get 50 to 60 letters daily, but in Kolkata alone only 50 searches had been done last year," he said.
