IT Dept on track for Rs 2,67,000 crore target: Mathoda

Nagpur, July 24 (UNI) The Income Tax (IT) Department is on track to achieve its target of Rs 2,67,000 crore in collection during the current fiscal, R S Mathoda, Member (Audit and Judicial) of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said here today.

Speaking to newsmen shortly after the 'Income Tax Day Function' at the National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT), Mr Mathoda said the indications were that the target would be achieved.

''We are hoping that we will make it,'' he said.

The department was contemplating shifting the workload to help dispose appeals fast. This could be done by assigning another officer for the hearing if the load was heavy on any appellate officer, he said adding that the officer thus assigned would camp at the place where the appeals had been filed and dispose the cases.

A similar exercise had been carried out two years ago, but no decision had been made for this year, he said.

Mr Mathoda said the department had introduced in June last a new system of internal audit under which each Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (CCIT) had an independent branch to carry out the work.

Under the earlier 'chain system,' each unit would conduct the audit of another, he pointed out.

Earlier, speaking at the Income Tax Day Function, he said computerisation in the department was inevitable because of the increasing workload. It would be impossible for humans alone to do all the work.

Mr Mathoda inaugurated the renovated archives of NADT on the occasion.

NADT, formerly known as the Income Tax Training College and IRS Training College, imparts training to new recruits of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) as well as in-service officers since 1957.

Income Tax Day is observed today because on this day in 1860 an act imposing income tax received assent of the then Governor General of India. A new law was enacted in 1921, on which the Income Tax Act of 1961 is based. It is now in force across the country.

UNI