Taxman saved Rs 4,000 crore due to quick refunds

The Income Tax Department has saved a potential interest out-go of up to Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) by an early pay-out of refunds to tax-payers in the month of April, a top I-T official said on Wednesday.

"In the month of April, we have issued more than 20 lakh (Rs 2 billion) refunds all over the country which is a record number of refunds issued in April," Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman, Sudhir Chandra, told reporters in Mumbai.

By doing so, the department has saved Rs 4,000-crore (Rs 40 billion).      

"The refund would have been (otherwise) issued in March 2012," he said.

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Chandra said the department has already finished over 90 per cent of the work on refunds and is targeting to finish it by June third week.

In another good news for salaried tax-payers, Chandra said the department will formally notify the Budget announcement of no tax returns to be filed for individuals earning up to Rs 500,000 by June.

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"In cases where the tax deducted at source is already done, we already have all the relevant information with us. Why should we ask him (tax-payer) to come to us again?" he said.

Chandra declined to give a specific answer when asked if the department is considering to raise more demands after a favourable ruling it got in the Vodafone case wherein the

British telecom major was asked to pay $1.7-billion as tax.

Asked if such demands by the department would dent foreign direct investment flows into the country, he said, "I don't agree with it."

. . .

On the other contentious debate over allowing the department to continue with its powers to tap phones which has arisen following the Niira Radia tapes scandal, he gave a measured answer, saying, 'the circumstances in which the power to intercept phones was given, there is no change in those circumstances.'

"We have done very deep searches and very large amounts of black money have been unearthed. . .interceptions have been helpful," he said.

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For curtailing the menace from tax havens, India has already entered into tax information exchange agreements with five countries while in case of seven others, it is in advanced stages of negotiations.

It had identified a total of 22 such 'tax havens', Chandra said, adding it will engage in negotiations with the remaining 10 soon.

In the last one-and-half-years, the investigation wing of the department has resulted in the recovery of Rs 32,000 crore (Rs 320 billion) on account of transfer pricing, Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion) on account of international taxation and Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) through searches and seizures, he said.