Number of I-T assesses down despite several drives

According to finance ministry sources, in 2000-01 too, the target of reaching 2.75 crore assesses could not be achieved as only 36 lakh new assesses were added during the fiscal, translating into a growth of 17 per cent. It may be noted that Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has set a target of reaching 5 crore income tax payers by the end of 2003-04. Sources added that the target of reaching 3.50 crore assesses by the end of march 2002 was fixed keeping in view the fact that one-by-six scheme had been extended to all the urban areas of the country. Each region was required to increase the number of assesses by 40 per cent during the year. The department had formulated an action plan to utilise one-by-six scheme effectively to increase the umber of assesses.

As per the latest information available with the finance ministry, Kolkata commissionerate has the maximum number of assesses in the country at the end of March 31, 2002, with 22.14 lakh assesses. Mumbai was close second with 21.79 lakh assesses. The number of income tax assesses in Delhi and Hyderabad stood at 17.89 lakh and 13.08 lakh respectively as on March 31, 2002.