The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, led by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, has asked the government to re-orient its efforts to bring into the tax net potential and high networth assessees who are responsible for tax evasion.
The committee?s report on tax evasion tabled in in Lok Sabha on Thursday pointed out that tax buoyancy, a key indicator of efficiency of revenue mobilisation in relation to GDP growth, has decreased during 2007-08 to 2011-12 period. ?This (tax buoyancy of 0.7) clearly indicates that the rate of growth of tax collection has fallen below the rate of growth of GDP,? the report said.
The committee also told the government to fix targets in respect of each charge (area of tax administration) for quick disposal of refunds. The committee also wants the finance ministry to fix responsibility on those officials who fail to grant eligible refunds on time.
Members of Parliament also suggested to the ministry to consider interim steps to weed out unwarranted tax exemptions and deductions as the implementation of the proposed direct taxes code (DTC) might take time.
As per the information provided by the finance ministry to the committee, the top five alleged tax defaulters are Hasan Ali Khan, Chandrika Tapuriah, Late Harshad Mehta, LIC and Vodafone. SBI, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company, BSNL, Madhu Koda and Triumph Securities are among the other alleged top defaulters.