<p>The apex direct tax body, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has formed seven committees comprising senior revenue officials to come out with a draft Vision 2020 document that would delineate ways to increase tax collections in a non-intrusive manner.<br /><br />The committees or working groups are meeting on a regular basis to draft the document that would focus also on monitoring cross-border transactions and inflow of capital, money laundering and exchange of information under treaty obligations, a finance ministry official said.<br /><br />At present, taxmen keep a watch on such activities, but the draft Vision 2020 document would clearly specify their role to combat money laundering, tax avoidance by overseas firms and other illegal activities, he said.<br /><br />The Vision 2020 document would work "to ensure growth in revenue collections, widening and deepening of tax base by following a non-intrusive, yet effective and meaningful enforcement strategy," the official said.<br /><br />The CBDT held a meeting of its officials on the Vision document here last week. At the meeting, there was stress on drafting of the document as soon as possible. (MORE) <br />As per the plans, the income tax department would have a fully functional research unit along with a data base on legal issues that have come before higher appellate authorities.<br /><br />There are seven working groups that are drafting the document, each headed by a senior bureaucrat of the revenue department.<br /><br />There would be one core drafting committee on people strategy and expenditure budgeting, a group on structure and process strategy, another on technology strategy and other aspects to improve the functioning of the department.<br /><br />The efforts by the Income Tax Department assumes importance as the country is likely to see a new legislation --Direct Taxes Code--from 2011-12, which would not only reduce exemptions but also the tax liability of the assessees.<br /><br />As such, the clear monitoring of the assessees would assume more importance under the new tax regime that would replace the archaic 1964 Income Tax Act.<br />Direct tax collections constituted 6.5 per cent of the GDP in 2008-09, up from 2.8 per cent in 1995-96. <br /></p>
<p>The apex direct tax body, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has formed seven committees comprising senior revenue officials to come out with a draft Vision 2020 document that would delineate ways to increase tax collections in a non-intrusive manner.<br /><br />The committees or working groups are meeting on a regular basis to draft the document that would focus also on monitoring cross-border transactions and inflow of capital, money laundering and exchange of information under treaty obligations, a finance ministry official said.<br /><br />At present, taxmen keep a watch on such activities, but the draft Vision 2020 document would clearly specify their role to combat money laundering, tax avoidance by overseas firms and other illegal activities, he said.<br /><br />The Vision 2020 document would work "to ensure growth in revenue collections, widening and deepening of tax base by following a non-intrusive, yet effective and meaningful enforcement strategy," the official said.<br /><br />The CBDT held a meeting of its officials on the Vision document here last week. At the meeting, there was stress on drafting of the document as soon as possible. (MORE) <br />As per the plans, the income tax department would have a fully functional research unit along with a data base on legal issues that have come before higher appellate authorities.<br /><br />There are seven working groups that are drafting the document, each headed by a senior bureaucrat of the revenue department.<br /><br />There would be one core drafting committee on people strategy and expenditure budgeting, a group on structure and process strategy, another on technology strategy and other aspects to improve the functioning of the department.<br /><br />The efforts by the Income Tax Department assumes importance as the country is likely to see a new legislation --Direct Taxes Code--from 2011-12, which would not only reduce exemptions but also the tax liability of the assessees.<br /><br />As such, the clear monitoring of the assessees would assume more importance under the new tax regime that would replace the archaic 1964 Income Tax Act.<br />Direct tax collections constituted 6.5 per cent of the GDP in 2008-09, up from 2.8 per cent in 1995-96. <br /></p>