"Close on the heels of the voluntary disclosure of income scheme (VDIS), another amnesty scheme will be unfair to the honest tax payer. VDIS was greatly condemned as it put honest tax payers at a disadvantage and we will not like to repeat that and that too within such a short span of the last amnesty scheme", Ravi Kant said.

The CBDT chairman also hinted at further broadening of the tax-net, but declined to give any details. Speaking at the meeting with various chambers of commerce and industry, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) chairman SD Mohile said the nominal increase in duties applicable to certain commodities was"inevitable".

"For a simple system free of litigation, tax convergence was necessary," he said, adding that there was no reopening of duties and changes had been made under the assumption that all commodities were under proper slabs.

"Duty rationalisation exposes the domestic industry to global competition in the long run and at the same time provides a certain level of protection in the short run," Mohile said.

Both the chiefs exhorted city businessmen to take pride in paying their taxes. They, however, assured the industry that tax and excise procedures will be further simplified and the representations made by the various associations today will be objectively looked into to remove any anomalies.

Other speakers at the seminar included AIAI president Vijay Kalantri who emphasised the need for improvement in infrastructure, particularly the roads and ports, and further rationalisation of excise procedures and slabs.