FM inaugurates first Large Taxpayers Unit

Bangalore, Nov 11: Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram today exhorted the tax collectors of various institutions in the country to effectively bring about attitudinal change and create a congenial atmosphere to enable tax payers to pay tax voluntarily.

Speaking at a function after inaugurating the country's first Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) here he said tax payers, especially those dealt by the LTU, deserved better respect and quality of services besides the trust. The First and foremost duty of the tax collectors was to establish trust with their clients and then verify facts before making assessment.

"Treat him with utmost respect because he is creating wealth for the country and helping the growth of the country's economy. Avoid annoying him or intimidating him," he advised adding that quality of assessment was more important.

Stressing the need to pay tax voluntarily, he said more number of people paid tax while 'some sections felt clever' by avoiding payment of taxes. " We have more information on such people and there is a group working to dig into more details about such people," he cautioned. "It is because of such people every tax payer is painted with the same brush and seen with suspicions," he remarked.

He said one or two LTU would be opened in other parts of the country within this year. There were over 830 eligible organisations which could pay in these units throughout the country.

They were located in New Delhi (200), Mumbai (282), Chennai (132), Kolkatta (131) and Bangalore (83). In Bangalore, of the 83, 31 had already chosen to be under the unit for all kinds of transactions with regard to payment of taxes, he revealed.

Earlier, Explaining the falicities at the LTU, Chief Commissioner K S Nair, in his presentation, said the LTU was a self contained tax administration office acting as a single window facility for all matters relating to the central excise, income tax, corporate tax and service tax. Large Taxpayers who had joined the LTU could file their direct taxes, excise and service tax returns in the LTU irrespective of geographical location of their units. The total revenue collected during 2005-06 from 31 large taxpayers was Rs 1464 crores and was expected to cross Rs 1800 crores during this year.

Some of the major units who had opted for LTU in Bangalore were Toyota Kirloskar Motors, ABB Limited, Astra Zeneca, Volvo, Canara Bank, Vijaya Bank and TNT.

He said the LTU also offered facilities such as E-filing of excise, service tax, income tax and corporate tax returns, E-payment of taxes, transfer of credit from one unit to another and inter unit transfer of inputs, capital goods, semi finished goods without payment of duty.

UNI