Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has directed the Income Tax Department to make all efforts to achieve the revised direct tax target of Rs.4 lakh crores. Addressing the All India Conference on Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) here today, Shri Mukherjee congratulated the department on reaching tax collection figure of Rs.2.50 lakh crore by December 2009 showing a growth rate of around 8.5%.
In order to achieve the revised target, the field formations may consider of taking steps which include identification of new areas for tax collection; indepth scrutiny of cross-border transactions; regular interactions with the Central Government and other State Government Departments who are responsible for deduction of TDS; monitoring of TDS at the district level where the massive social expenditure and infrastructure expenditure are incurred by the Government; and regular sharing of information amongst the Commissionerates to develop a common data base of new areas explored by each Commissionerate for collection of TDS.
Pointing out that although during the last 5 years the contribution from TDS had gone up from 33% to 38.5% of the net direct tax collection, Shri Mukherjee expected that this high growth rate in TDS collection could be further accelerated. He observed that smaller towns were witnessing greater tax collection due to buoyancy in the economy.
