Finance minister Arun Jaitley will meet the brass of the income-tax department on Monday to discuss steps to raise advance tax receipts from sectors like automobiles where early signs of revival have been seen, limited-liability partnerships (LLPs) that are subject to alternate minimum tax and real estate firms.
At a conference of the chief commissioners and director generals of income tax, the finance minister is also expected to discuss strategies to improve collections from tax deducted at source (TDS), revenue targets for various cities, plans to recover tax arrears and ways to make foolproof cases against tax evaders, sources said.
Besides attempting to improve advance tax receipts, which accounted for about 40% of the R7.27 lakh crore gross direct tax collection last fiscal, officials are also likely to focus this year on top 100 advance tax payers, who make up for 79% of the total receipts under this category.
Advance tax receipts from corporate houses grew 8.2% last fiscal, while personal income tax expanded by over 11% in the same period. The tax department, therefore, would urge field officers to focus on corporate tax payers to improve revenue collection.
The department is also expected to keep a close watch over the advance tax paid by banks, power generation and transmission companies and LLPs for any short payment.
As per the plan to boost revenue collection, field officials would be asked to compare the advance tax paid by large- and medium-sized companies with their published quarterly profit-and-loss statements. Companies that report losses when the industry as a whole is profit-making, are likely to attract attention of the field officers. The department is also expected to write letters to over 22 lakh individuals who make high value payments but do not file tax returns.
