I have paid advance tax: FM, tells others to follow

Finance Minister P Chidambaram wants tax payers to pay advance income tax in time like he did.

"I signed my advance tax cheque yesterday. I sent it through my wife ... So hopefully Advance Tax will be paid. So she got some money from me also," the Minister said pointing to CBDT Chairperson Poonam Kishore Saxena.

The scheduled date for payment advance tax is December 15 and the Finance Ministry had earlier in the week asked tax payers to either disclose their true income and deposit advance tax or face action.

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"While December 15 is advance tax day, actually people can pay tax up to December 31. No penalty will be charged. Interest will be charged for a few days," he said.

The people, he added, "must pay their advance tax. I expect a good or better degree of compliance this time...Hold your head high so that you don't have to hide yourself when you run into an Income Tax officer".

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The Minister also exuded the confidence that government will be able to meet the direct tax collection target and if everyone declares their true income, then the revenue realisation would exceed the Budget estimates.

"Everyone whose data we have about their purchases, mutual fund, if they pay their advance tax then actually we should collect more than target," Chidambaram said.

Noting that only 14.62 lakh assessees have declared their taxable income of over Rs 10 lakh, Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose had said that "any fair minded person will agree that this is a gross under-statement."