Back to paper raj

PRODUCING the new improved 12 page saral income tax return form has evidently been a labour of love. Passion and creativity are written all over it. Only someone utterly devoted to sarkari paper, someone denied the joys of playing with sub-clauses and sub-sections for the last three years, could have come up with this one. There is no other explanation for the transformation of the original, single sheet into this monstrously large and hungry creature. The new saral is a glutton for information. It asks innumerable questions under every head and then some: 10 questions on the perquisites and allowances of salary earners, 17 on income from house property and an equal number on capital gains. Aghast at the thought of actually having to digest it all, the income tax department then asks for a statement of income. Even in an age of information overkill, this is going too far.

Millions of newish tax-payers who were urged with promises of saral, samman and samjhauta to file returns annually are going to be furious. Older tax-payers have seen falls from grace many times before and may be more stoical. A more complicated income tax return form could not have been invented. But do not rush to an expert. As the Income Tax Bar Association in Ahmedabad points out, even tax consultants are foxed by the new saral. So why the volte face? Why torment those who comply with the law? There are surely better ways of justifying the existence of over-staffed income tax offices. If time hangs heavy on clerical hands it could be used, for example, to issue assessment orders regularly. At higher levels more effort could be spent on settling disputes, issuing clarifications promptly, plugging loopholes, removing contradictions and thinking of ways of bringing more people into the tax net. Most importantly, income tax officials could concentrate on recovering thousands of crores of unpaid tax dues. That is where real creativity would count.

There is still time to recall and cancel the new saral and the finance minister should not hesitate to do so. Efficiency demands that the process of filing and assessing tax returns be streamlined. The government is entitled to a full disclosure of taxable income and the tax payer is entitled to a rational assessment regime. If the old saral met those requirements by and large, why change it? The idea is sound — that a combination of strict criteria, close monitoring and simple procedures will encourage more people to declare their income and pay their taxes. Indeed it has been the proud boast of the finance ministry that more people have been drawn into the tax net by those means. So, stick with it.

This editorial from The Indian Express has been edited for space.