Bengaluru: Bengaluru tops the country for best income tax compliance. Speaking to the media people in the city on Monday, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Karnataka & Goa, Nutan Wodeyar said the region has outdone other states in "historic" income tax collection for the financial year 2016-17.
"We have exceeded the budget target for the FY 2016-17 for the region. As against the target of Rs 85,478 crore, the I-T Department has collected Rs 86,229.50 crore. The growth rate for Karnataka & Goa at 22.4 per cent is much higher than the national average of 11.8 per cent. It is a historic achievement," she said, adding that maximum tax contribution comes from the Tax Deducted at Source.
The department had collected Rs 70,400 crore in 2015-16. Ms Wodeyar said that despite an acute shortage of manpower (57%), the department has outdone itself, but the credit needed to be shared between the law abiding tax payees and the enforcement officers.
On the enforcement front, Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), K&G, B.R. Balakrishnan said that the directorate has unearthed Rs 4,828 crore of undisclosed income this year as against Rs 2,135 crore in the previous financial year. "We have searched 73 groups, issued 328 search warrants and seized Rs 132 crore in 2016-17 as against Rs 54 crore the previous year," he said.
Income Tax Director (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) Ravichandran Ramaswamy, said post-demonetisation, 22 cooperative banks in Karnataka have not filed the annual information report to the Department of cash deposits above Rs 10 lakh. "Out of the 307 filers (banks including the six nationalised banks, which are headquartered in K&G) only 264 banks have submitted their cash deposit reports of deposits above Rs 2.5 lakh," he said.
