The Income Tax (I-T) collection in the country stood at a record Rs 10.03 lakh crore during 2017-18, officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) have said.
According to Shabri Bhattasali, a member of CBDT, during 2017-18, a record number of 6.92 crore I-T returns were filed, which is 1.31 crore more than 5.61 crore returns filed in 2016-17.
According to officials, the I-T department added 1.06 crore new return filers during 2017-18 and aims to add 1.25 crore new filers for the current year. In the North East region, this number was 1.89 lakh, Bhattasali said.
L.C. Joshi Ranee, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, North Eastern Region, said that Rs 7,097 crore tax was collected from the region during 2017-18.
This is 16.7% higher than Rs 6,082 crore collected in 2016-17.He said the target in the region for 2018-19 has been fixed at Rs 8,357 crore which will be 17.75% more than this year’s collection.
With the objective of meeting the target tax collection and increasing the taxpayers’ base, Ranee said that additional “Aaykar Seva Kendras” will be opened in far-flung areas.
Last week, state Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla had told Parliament that as many as 2.09 lakh “non-filers” filed their income tax returns in the last fiscal (2017-18) and paid taxes worth Rs 6,416 crore, adding that the I-T department issued notices to 3.04 lakh persons who had deposited cash of more than Rs 10 lakh post demonetisation, but had not filed returns.