JOIN USFocus on small towns: FM to I-T dept
“Apart from concentrating on big cities and towns, the (I-T) Department should also look to smaller towns and cities for widening tax base,” he said while inaugurating the annual conference of Chief Commissioners and Directors General of Income Tax here.
Pointing out that small towns have emerged as the centres of growth due to the inclusive growth agenda of the government, he directed the officials to develop special strategies to monitor compliance of tax deducted at source at the district, state and Central levels.
He said tax laws need to be simple, stable and robust; tax rates should remain moderate and multiplicity of tax exemptions and deductions should be gradually phased out in order to widen and deepen the tax base.
During his interaction with top I-T officials, Mukherjee referred to the menace of black money being kept in tax havens abroad.Pointing out that globalisation has thrown up new and complex challenges such as the development of tax shelter products and the use of tax havens, he indicated that the government was in the process of setting up eight more Income Tax Overseas Units including in the United States and United Kingdom to facilitate the exchange of tax-related information.
At present, the government has one such unit each at the Indian mission in Singapore and Mauritius. “Eight more such units in the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, Cyprus, Germany, France and the UAE are also being created on similar lines,” Mukherjee said.