Malu Kerni
JAMMU: Principal Commissioner, Income Tax, Sangeeta Gupta believes in speed and development. She is a packet of positive energy and believes in results and that too in a time bound manner. A perfect professional and expert in her field of work, Principal Commissioner got some time from her busy schedule and interacted with STATE TIMES.
Principal Commissioner asserted that after taking over the charge in July 2015, she mainly focused on building a bridge between the department and general public. To bridge the gap, she held interactive sessions with different sections of the society. She held interactions with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Income Tax Bar so as to acquaint herself about their problems and take corrective measures.
Many awareness camps and interactive sessions were organized with avowed objective of spreading the message of widening of tax base and filing of tax returns by different categories of people. The Principal Commissioner of Income Tax also pointed out that at present the tax can be deposited online at any place and there is no requirement to visit the bank branch for the purpose.
The Principal Commissioner of Income Tax asserted that topmost priority of her department is to provide effective, efficient and timely services to the tax payers and the tax payers are also required to respond and not only deposit the due tax in time but also file their Returns of income in time.
She further added that the business community in Jammu and Kashmir feels sacred when the Department asks them to file their Returns. She clarified that filing of Returns doesn’t mean one filing of profit. They can show losses as well and the Department will give them deductions.” It is a misconception among people here that filing of Returns means filing of profit only”, she said.
IT Commissioner Gupta shared that she has organized awareness camps in schools also and the main reason for holding such camps is to make the young students aware of their future responsibilities as good and truthful taxpayers.
About the biggest achievement during her one year tenure, she informed that three additional offices were opened at Katra, Samba and Baramulla to make tax filing easy for people. It is pertinent to mention here that after a long gap of more than six years, Income Tax Department has established 3 new offices. “These offices will not only mitigate the grievance of the tax payers but would also serve as a good liaison between the tax payers and the Income Tax Department”, added Sangeeta Gupta.
Principal Commissioner further shared that during her visit to Reasi and interaction with people it was noticed that the tax payers of the district Reasi had to travel long way either to Udhampur or Jammu for their work related to income tax matters as such the Department decided to provide services at their door steps. To this problem, she stated that it was sad that none of the bank branches at Reasi was authorized to receive the income tax and to make it convenient for the people she took the matter with the RBI to authorise any of the bank branch as nodal branch for receipt of income tax. “I believe in serving people and redressing their grievances to build a friendly relation with people”, said Sangeeta Gupta.
Responding to a question on Kashmir’s share of income tax collection, she said that both Kashmir and Jammu regions are at par. She said that due to flash floods advance tax deposits of Kashmir region was marginal but this year the graph has shown the surge. “Kashmir and Jammu are same for me,” she maintained. Sangeeta asserted that after taking over the charge since July 2015, more than 54,000 notices were issued to the non-filer and stop-filer assessees.
“There is a wide scope of improvement in our Department in Kashmir Valley. I have realized that people are not happy with Central Government and they abhor paying their taxes. People have grievances and I want to redress them”, shared Sangeeta Gupta.
When questioned about the response of Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) she said, “It is a great initiative of the Centre and people should avail the opportunity and declare their undisclosed income and pay the suitable 45 per cent tax on it and should contribute in the development and growth process.”
She maintained that in Jammu the Department is getting a good response and people are coming forward and grabbing the benefits of the IDS scheme. She further assured that the information regarding IDS scheme is totally confidential and would not be shared with any other agency.
“I will also spare the declarant of scrutiny under Income Tax/Wealth Tax. The source of declared income is also not being questioned. People should come out clean and avail this golden opportunity which is available till 30 September 2016”, she added
