Nagpur: Chartered accountants and revenue authorities work hand in hand to ensure compliance of policies of the government, remarked Sandeep Bandhu, Director of Income Tax, Intelligence & Criminal Investigation, Nagpur.
He was speaking as chief guest at seminar on ‘Critical Issues in SFT (Statement of Financial Transactions), organised by the Nagpur branch of ICAI. He applauded the contribution of chartered accountants, who according to him are the key support agencies to revenue authorities.
Sandeep, an IRS officer of 1995 batch, guided the members about ‘statutory framework of SFT’.
He shared the basic intent of legislature with respect to the concerned provisions governing the reporting of statement of financial transactions. While there is a paradigm shift to bring our tax administration in tune with global trends; the department has moved from enforcement agency to a facilitator (tax serving agency). Bandhu stressed that with change in organisational structure, set administration procedures and mindset needs to be changed. With department’s aim directed towards business process re-engineering like E-assessment and expected achievements, Bandhu pointed that high quality citizen service leads to improved revenue collection.
Bandhu has been actively involved in development of technology-driven quality tax payer service modules in the Income Tax Department through CPC (TDS) and has represented the department at several information technology forums. In the current scenario, assessee’s data is getting compiled from many sources like office of registrar of immovable properties, TDS returns of deductors, concerned banks and financial institutions, GST returns of the assesses, he remarked. This third party mechanism is used to cross check transactions between different tax payers. Department is working towards principal of “Once Only” information extraction to reduce burden on tax savvy citizens and reduce risk of errors due to multiple information systems.
He explained the importance of PAN in management of high value transactions. Even the persons not having income tax, PAN are planned to be effectively traced by resorting to acknowledgement of Form 61, he SAID.
He appealed to the chartered accountants to help create awareness among assessees to comply with the provisions and the deadline of May 31 to file the SFT returns.
Dr Kaumudi Patil, Joint Director of Income Tax in Settlement Commission, Mumbai, was the second speaker, who guided the members on technical and practical aspects related to provisions of SFT.
CAs are effectively educating tax payers on one hand and ensuring due compliance and transparency in the matter of financial transactions, on the other hand, she remarked.
Suren Duragkar, Chairman of Nagpur branch of ICAI, lauded the cordial approach of Mr. Bandhu, who had come along with all departmental officers to address issues of chartered accountants. He assured the revenue authorities, that CAs are working shoulder to shoulder with department to ensure effective compliance of SFT provisions and Nagpur branch is always ready to extend support wherever required. Duragkar appreciated the revenue authorities for bringing “One Only” Principle, which means all the information will be available at one click.
Kirit Kalyani, Vice-Chairman of the branch, coordinated the event. He informed the members to submit their queries if any, to Nagpur branch, which will be compiled and forwarded to the Income Tax Department at Nagpur.
Saket Bagdia, secretary of the branch proposed a vote of thanks.
Prominently present on the occasion were Akshay V Gulhane, Harish Rangwani, Executive Committee Members, Julfesh Shah, former Vice-Chairman of WIRC of ICAI, Sandeep Jotwani, ex-Chairman, Nagpur branch and around 125 CAs.
