I-T nets 3.72 lakh new assessees

MUMBAI, April 30: The Income-Tax I-T Department's exercise seeking information on high-spenders and owners of a specified set of assets...

MUMBAI, April 30: The Income-Tax I-T Department8217;s exercise seeking information on high-spenders and owners of a specified set of assets has led to a rise in the number of new assessees in Mumbai over the last two years.

The I-T Department has collected information from various sources/agencies on the six criteria as enumerated in the I-T Act, to identify persons who have to mandatorily file returns. The exercise is aimed at identifying these persons by what has come to be known as the two-by four and one-by six8217; method.

According to the Chief Commissioner of Mumbai, B Mishra, though the connection between the exercise and the rise in number of assessees may not be direct it has definitely had an effect, especially on the salaried class. This class reads the newspapers and is more aware, leading to better compliance, the chief commissioner feels.

Given that there is always a number of persons who are irregular in filing returns or stop filing after some years, the stop-filers8217; in the taxman8217;sparlance, the figures for Mumbai have been growing. In the year ended March 31, 1997, the number of assessees was 11.78 lakh. This grew to 14.5 lakh in March 1998 and was 15.5 lakh on March 31, 1998.

The exercise was undertaken following changes in the Income Tax Act in 1997, whereby Section 139 1 was made more specific, requiring certain categories of persons to file returns. The government8217;s effort is to widen the tax net, which today stands at a miniscule one per cent of the country8217;s population.

The department8217;s exercise was two pronged: One, to collect assets-based data and the other based on transactions requiring quoting of the PAN number.

The investigation directorate, in Mumbai for instance, had earlier collected data from various agencies on four criteria only 8211; ownership of vehicles, telephones including cellular phones, properties above 600 sq ft and foreign travel during the financial year. Two new criteria 8211; ownership of credit cards and membership of clubs where the entry fee isabove Rs 25,000 8211; were added in August 1998, thus taking the criteria to six.

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Under the earlier four criteria, the department secured 30.53 lakh pieces of information till March 31, 1998. The break-up: Vehicles: 7.26 lakh, phones: 16.27 lakh, properties: 3 lakh, foreign travel: 4 lakh.

Post-March 31, 1998, the department procured another 19.06 lakh pieces of information. The break-up: vehicles: 2,81,674, telephones: 4,92,770, properties 4,904, foreign travel: 6,71,792, credit cards including outstation holders: 4,47,676, club membership: 7,475. Further, 3,500 housing societies have been sent notices for not having supplied the information sought.

From the first set of data, the department identified about one lakh persons who satisfy two of the four criteria. This list has now been sent to ranges which will monitor the filing of returns.

From the second set of data post-March 31, 1998, the department is still in the process of identifying the list of persons who satisfy one of the six criteria. Onthe PAN number front, over a lakh transactions have been reported in Mumbai to the directorate till March 1999.