SHILLONG, April 26 - The Northeastern States have overshot the national average in direct tax collection by three per cent during 2016-17 probably due to the impact of �Operation Clean Money.�
The All India direct tax collection has increased by 14 per cent during 2016-17 (March) in comparison to 2015-16, but in the North East the average direct tax collection increased by 17 per cent in the same period.
A senior Income Tax official told The Assam Tribune that the All India total direct tax collection stood at Rs 8,48,000 crore during 2016-17 against Rs 7,42,000 in 2015-16.
Therefore, there was a 14 per cent increase in direct tax collection throughout India during 2016-17 in comparison to the previous year.
However, in the North East the direct tax collection increased by 17 per cent in 2016-17 in comparison to the previous fiscal. The total direct tax collection was Rs 5,198 crore in 2015-16. This figure jumped to Rs 6,092 crore in 2016-17 (till March) in the region, the IT official said.
He said the demonetisation policy did play a factor in the increased direct tax collection. �The demonetisation policy had a good affect and more people are becoming tax compliant. In short, the policy did help in making several people tax abiding citizens,� the official said.
He was of the view that the policy has made the people �aware� about the importance of filing their Income Tax on time and work for the overall welfare of the country. �Many people feel that they have a role in contributing towards nation building by filing their returns on time and in a transparent manner,� the official said.
Regarding �Operation Clean Money,� he said that the process of investigation would continue for the next couple of years and it would take some time to be completed. �The investigations would be an ongoing process, but we may see the completion of probe in some of the cases where defaulters comply with tax laws of the country,� he said.
On the present system of filing returns, the official said, 99 per cent of the filing is now done online. �There is hardly any interface with IT officials and there is hardly any paper documentation these days. The system has become immensely transparent,� he added.
The IT department is also conducting awareness programme with employers, especially in the private sector so that there is �no mismatch� in the tax return filings.
