CBDT asks dept to act on Shortfall in TDS collections

After a huge short­fall in tax deduct­ed at source (TDS) col­lec­tions, CBDT has asked the income tax depart­ment (IT) to ini­ti­ate spe­cial mea­sures to achieve the col­lec­tion tar­get for this finan­cial year. The board asked offi­cials to bol­ster their efforts and give spe­cial empha­sis on TDS and advance tax categories.

The growth in TDS col­lec­tions was less by 50 per cent this time as com­pared to the year-ago peri­od. In 2013–14, the growth under this head was 16.7 per cent. In 2014–15 the growth per­cent­age is only 7.8 per cent.

CBDT, the apex pol­i­cy mak­ing body of the I‑T depart­ment, also asked the tax­man to ensure assessees who have made “hand­some” self-assess­ment tax dec­la­ra­tions be tapped to deposit it as advance tax so that the fig­ures could be col­lat­ed and reflect­ed in this finan­cial year, which will end March 31.

The bud­get­ed tar­get under the direct tax cat­e­go­ry is fixed at Rs 7.36 lakh-crore for the cur­rent finan­cial year and it had col­lect­ed Rs 5,46,661 crore till Jan­u­ary 23.

To ensure bet­ter TDS and advance tax col­lec­tions offi­cials have been asked to make on-spot vis­its to default­ing organ­i­sa­tions and inter­act with offi­cials and indi­vid­u­als respon­si­ble under the estab­lished mech­a­nism in this regard.