Hyderabad: The frequent raids by income-tax officials would create panic among businessmen and it is nothing but tax terrorism, a trader said. The Federation of Telangana and AP Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTAPCCI) doesn’t agree, saying that was the case when the multiple tax system was in place.
Mr Ravindra Modi, former president, FTAPCCI, said: “Generally, it (raids) takes on two factors — political and non-political. Because of Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, there’s pressure on the Centre to do something. So, the government resorts to raids. The second reason is technical such as tax evasion and benami deals.”
He said that the I-T, GST and customs departments had been digitised and this was bringing to light issues pen-ding for over 10 years, “This is one major reason why raids happen. With tax reforms and GST in place, corrupt-ion is not that easy as everything is online and can be spotted from anywhere, Mr Modi said.
He said the quarterly results have been very good and the stock markets are at a record high. “Only firms in the unorganised sector or in segments such as real estate may not be following the tax compliance as required. May be these companies attract tax raids,” he said.
A chartered accountant on condition of anonymity said: “There is syndicated corruption as right from the peon to the top officials, everyone gangs up in sharing the booty. Because of digitisation, the syndicated corruption is coming down.”
He said there was no tax terrorism as the industry either pays tax or avoids it by bribing officials. “The previous multiple tax system and policy variation from state to state used to terrorise the business community. GST is bringing transparency as everything is online and visible,” he said.
GST officials set for action
GST officials are gearing up to commence raids from Monday. Despite high tax compliance, officials have found irregularities in returns filing and mismatch with I-T returns. A number of registered as-essees are found to be not filing returns regularly.
A majority of notices served recently failed to get responses from the assessees concerned. GST officials are keen to cover this gap. “We received only 12,000 replies to the 45,000 notices served. We will look into this matter. Probably, we’ll begin raids from Monday,” said a GST official.
