By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 11, 2013: WHEN the Revenue Secretary had made an appeal in December, to all taxpayers to pay their taxes in the current year and had also indicated that the Income tax department has huge data with respect to various sorts of transactions, it was taken by a large number of taxpayers as empty threat. But in a follow-up action, the CBDT field formations have begun issuing notices to potential income earners who have not even filed returns.

The Directorate of Systems has undertaken a business intelligence project to identify PAN holders who have not filed Income Tax Return and about whom specific information is available in 148 information codes of Annual Information Return (AIR), Central Information Branch (CIB) data and TDS/TCS Returns. Information in the Cash Transaction Reports (CTRs) of FIU-IND has also been included as part of this data matching exercise. This data analysis has identified target segment of 12,19,832 non-filers linked to more than 4.7 crore information records. Rule based algorithms have been used to identify high priority cases for follow-up and monitoring.

In the first batch, letters are being sent to 35,170 PAN holders by the Directorate of Intelligence and Criminal Investigation. The letter contains the summary of the information of financial transaction(s) along with a customized response sheet and seeks to know whether the person had filed his Income Tax return or not. A Nodal cell has been set up to capture the response and take follow-up action. There will be an online monitoring system to ensure follow-up action and track return filing and tax payment of the target segment.

The Government would once again urge all tax payers to disclose their true income and pay appropriate taxes within the current financial year.