FM Sitharaman chaired review meeting with CBDT

by Psu Connect
Date: 25-04-23

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a periodic review meeting with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

NEW DELHI- Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a periodic review meeting with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), on 25 April 2023. The review meeting was attended by the Revenue Secretary; Chairman, CBDT; and all the Members of CBDT.

Inter alia, the Finance Minister reviewed the following subjects:

Efforts for increasing taxpayer base
Pending disciplinary proceeding cases
Disposal of applications for condonation of delay and grant of exemptions under certain sections of the Income Tax Act, 1961

During the review meeting, the Finance Minister was apprised about the impact of the following initiatives:

The introduction of new data sources in Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) like Dividend and Interest; Securities; Mutual Funds and information from GSTN in recent years has led to 1118% increase in reported information.

This has resulted in the addition of information of about 3 crore persons. The introduction of new TDS codes, which have almost doubled from 36 to 65 in the last eight years, led to an increase in total reported transactions in FY 2021-22 to 144 crore as compared to total reported transactions in FY 2015-16 of 70 crore.

This has resulted in an increase in the number of unique deductees — almost doubled from 4.8 crore (in F.Y. 2015-16) to 9.2 crore (in F.Y. 2021-22).

Smt. Sitharaman was also apprised of the fact that the Personal Income Tax (PIT) to GDP ratio has been steadily increasing from 2.11 in F.Y. 2014-15 to 2.94 in F.Y. 2021-22.

The Finance Minister also reviewed the pending disciplinary proceeding cases against employees/officers and observed that administrative and procedural delays should be minimized. Smt. Sitharaman also directed CBDT to take prompt action in the finalization of such proceedings.

The Finance Minister emphasized that CBDT should ensure timely and appropriate actions on all applications filed by taxpayers and desired a reasonable time frame for the disposal of such applications.

The Finance Minister exhorted CBDT to expand and strengthen its efforts to increase taxpayers’ awareness regarding the provisions of the direct tax laws and compliance thereof.