Nagpur News : Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA) has suggested to the new government for an urgent review of the existing tax policies, due to which a trader is mostly involved in compliances of various tax requirements & hardly gets time to concentrate on his trade.
J. P. Sharma, President of VTA said, Goods and Service Tax (GST) should be put into practice at the earliest. All indirect taxes to be subsumed and no sector of the economy should be left outside its ambit.
Sharma said VTA supports income tax exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh as proposed in DTC 2013, however strongly recommend that the 10% income tax slab proposed from 2 to 5 Lakh should be increased to 10 lakh, similarly 20% income tax slab as proposed from 5 to 10 Lakh should be increased to 10 to 20 lakh and 30% slab should be from 10 lakh to 5 crore. Above Rs 5 crores another slab of 35% could be incorporated. By doing so tax base will increase and more Taxpayers will be attracted in declaring more income thus increasing revenue considerably, moreover the tax revenue drop due to increase in tax rate slabs shall be squarely adjusted from the creation of fourth new slab of 35%, this will also result in boosting economy of the Country to a large extend.
Sharma said pricing of petrol, diesel and CNG should be uniform nationwide so that smuggling carried interstate comes to a halt, as being done from Haryana to Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Likewise petroleum products are also being smuggled from Goa to Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Similarly spirit tax should be uniformly taxed between 16-18% instead of 15 to 27%.
Tejinder Singh Renu, secretary of VTA pointed out that Part IV of the Eighteenth Schedule of DTC 2013 which deals in respect of procedure for recovery of tax is unprecedented as discretionary powers are granted to the Assessing Officer to arrest and/or attach movable/immoveable properties of the defaulter taxpayer. Out of 125 Crore population very few are direct taxpayers and are truly contributing to the nation building, giving such discretionary powers to Assessing officers is absolutely unjustified, arbitrary and should be withdrawn.
Renu said in Finance Act, 2013, insertion of new Section 43CA and amendment in Section 53(2)(vii) in Income Tax Act 1961 has generated a situation which is clearly leading to ‘Double Taxation’ and also shattering fundamental principles of taxation policy and also squarely violating fundamental rights of Constitution of India, hence we appeal this new Union Government to take this issue of double taxation for reconsideration and delete Section 43CA and Section 56(2)(vii)(b) in Income Tax Act with retrospective effect in the interest of natural justice.
Renu said that there is too much pressure on the tax officers to increase revenue collections leading to arbitrary additions, delay in refunds, leading to disputes and pointless litigation. Revenue generation is totally dependent on the economic activity in the country; hence cannot be enhanced by prescribing artificially high targets for the tax officers. Government should make sincere efforts to move away from the forceful revenue approach and provide an authentic non-adversarial and conducive tax environment.
