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Lakhera for mutual trust between taxpayers and IT department

Special Correspondent

Income Tax collection target exceeded in Pondicherry in 2004-2005, says official

PONDICHERRY: The Lt Governor M.M. Lakhera, has said that a close rapport and mutual trust between the income taxpayers and the department of Income Tax would always go a long way in ensuring good climate and the tax paid by individuals was only a contribution of the people to the overall development of the country's economy.

Help centre

Inaugurating a Help centre of the Income Tax Department here on Thursday, Mr. Lakhera, said that those manning the centre could with compassion and patience serve better the prospective tax payers and also small businessmen and others effectively.

Mr.Lakhera said that simplification of procedure was the hallmark of the department and even the forms to be filled by taxpayers, which would run to several pages in the past, had been reduced conveniently to a smaller size.

The Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, P.N. Sachan, who presided, said that help centre was a new concept introduced by the government. The idea of opening such centres was to enable the prospective taxpayers and small businessmen to know of their rights and duties and also other features of the income tax. He said that help centre had been housed on the premises of Chamber of Commerce here deliberately so as to ensure that the people utilised the facility freely.

Mr.Sachan said that though the department targeted a tax collection of Rs 144 crores in Pondicherry in 2004-2005 the target was exceeded and the actual collection was Rs 224 crores here. He said that it was expected that the collection would go up by 35 per cent in the current fiscal of 2005-2006 and touch around Rs 305 crores.

The PMK leader, M. Ramadoss, said that opening of the help centres was part of the taxation reforms the UPA government at the Centre had introduced in the country. He said that the contributions to the kitty from direct taxes like Income Tax and Corporate tax had been increasing thanks to effective reforms introduced by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram.

He said that the income tax realised in Pondicherry had been on the increase as could be seen during the last some years. It was around Rs 95 crores in 2002-2003 and rose to Rs 100 crores in 2003-2004 and Rs 224 crores in the 2004-2005.

The Commissioner of Income Tax in Pondicherry, Sushil Kumar, said that help centre would cater for the prospective taxpayers and small businessmen. It would not however be a forum to redress the grievances of the present assessees. Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, R.V. Janakiraman and the MLAs R. Siva and S.P. Sivakumar spoke.

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