Business
Widen income tax net: Senior official
Kolkata, March 7
The ambit of income tax needs
to be increased to bring in more people within its fold besides
widening the scope of taxing the super-rich category, according to a
senior official.
"I think the tax base (in the country) should be
increased," the Income Tax Depasrtment's Principal Chief Commissioner
for West Bengal and Sikkim C.L. Denzongpa told IANS on the sidelines of a
CII event here.
He said only three percent of the India's
population of over 1.2 billion is enrolled with the income tax
department of which half are tax payers.
Denzongpa said the state's earnings will increase if the tax base is amplified.
"The super-rich tax also needs to be widened," he added.
The
budget for 2015-16 tabled in parliament last Saturday imposes an
additional two percent surcharge on tax for individuals whose annual
income is Rs.1 crore or more.
Besides individuals, the super-rich
category also includes Hindu Undivided Families, firms, cooperative
societies and local authorities.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,
in his budget speech, had indicated that the government expects to raise
Rs.9,000 crore from the two percent additional surcharge.
According to the tax official, the super-rich class of tax payers would not be hit the hardest in case of a tax hike.
In 2013-14, then finance minister P. Chidambaram had levied a 10 percent surcharge on taxable income of Rs.1 crore and above.