I-T may train guns on cos that lag sector

Companies reporting lesser earnings despite their respective sectors registering healthy growth will now come under the scanner of the income tax department.

Companies reporting lesser earnings despite their respective sectors registering healthy growth will now come under the scanner of the income tax department.

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With finance minister Arun Jaitley promising to adopt “non-intrusive and non-adversarial methods of tax collection while ensuring non-evasion”, taxmen have been asked to adhere to these ways.

The department has also been directed to be stringent in cases that show signs of discrepancy, a senior finance ministry official told HT.

“The government is clear that there will be non-intrusive ways of assessment, which means there will be less harassment of companies but at that same time, we need to ensure that there is no or minimum evasion,” the official said.

“And the companies that show sudden deviation in filing taxes or those who show significantly lesser earnings even if the sector they belong to have registered healthy growth will come under scrutiny,” the official added.

Officials may also be given training to build forensic skills to deal with situations where there could be evasion, he said.

Direct tax collection registered a 15% growth during the April-September period with gross direct tax mop-up at Rs. 3.46 lakh crore against Rs. 3.01 lakh crore a year ago.