Harassment By Taxmen Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Allays Fears

NEW DELHI: Maintaining that tax collection targets are achievable, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday reiterated that tax officers must not overstretch and overreach.

She said that all the deadlines for tax collections have been decided in consultation with the authorities and, hence, these are not impossible to achieve.

“Therefore, my request has been not to overreach, not to overstretch themselves (tax officers) in the collection process. It is achievable even if they are able to go with a bit of restraint,” the Minister said.

Nirmala Sitharaman held a meeting with tax officials in Pune on August 27, her fourth in the series, to discuss tax issues and assure taxpayers of fair and non-intrusive tax administration.

Referring to the announcements made by her last Friday to push growth, Sitharaman said that, starting October 1, 2019, all tax notices would be disposed off within three months from the date of reply. The move is aimed at addressing the complaints of harassment by the Income Tax Department.

She also said that entrepreneurs need to be able to work without any worry.

On GST related issues, the Minister specifically said that there was no discussions on rate reductions for agricultural items.

Issues related to homebuyers were, however, discussed in the meeting.

The government is set to announce measures to help homebuyers when it comes out soon with the next instalment of the package to boost economic growth. After a welter of measures announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week to deal with the economic slowdown and then RBI surplus’ transfer on Monday, the government will announce relief package for the real estate sector, under which a stress fund could be set up to help complete unfinished projects. (IANS)

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