Siliguri, 09th February: The Eastern ABC Chamber of Commerce and Industries, on Sunday, submitted a letter to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman alleging of being harassed by the Income Tax Department.
The organization maintained that the trade associations of Siliguri try to maintain cordial relations between the departments and the taxpayers. However, it alleged that after the change of the Commissioner in 2018, surveys and searches grew considerably. The organization stated that about 20 surveys were conducted within a very short period. The organization accused the Joint Commissioner, specifically entrusted with the surveys by the Commissioner, of having “mala fide intentions“. The traders and their staff were allegedly threatened with repression. “..they (Income Tax Department) coerced the traders and their staff by threatening to take actions under various sections and put them in Jail and extorted money from them,” the letter accused.
As per the organization, in September 2018, there was a movement against such search and surveys after which the pestering discontinued for a while but resumed after “..notices of scrutiny, reopening of cases, illegal attachment of the properties, ignoring the submissions of taxpayers and passed orders arbitrarily..” The organization revealed that taxpayers were also made to pay a minimum of 2 lakh rupees per case to give relief and all this was done with the assistance of the staff of the department by the Commissioner of Income Tax at Siliguri.
‘Enough is enough’- was how the traders felt after a survey conducted by a team of Income Tax officers on February 6. When the organization members intervened, they found that the mobile phones of the shop owner and his relatives and staff had been confiscated. Some officers were conducting the survey/search under the leadership of Azhar Kabir. As per the allegation, the team failed to produce any notice concerning the survey. “When we brought to the notice of the officer that as per the recent statement of Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, all communications should be served with DIN, he said that this provision was yet not in force.” The letter further added that the officers eventually left the premises after other shop owners gathered.
In the letter, the Eastern ABC Chamber of Commerce and Industries alleged of being victims of the officers’ rowdyism during surveys. They demanded an investigation by Anti Corruption Bureau/Vigilance Commission/CBI against S. Radhakrishanan, the present Commissioner of Income Tax, and his team of officers for the accumulation of illegal money and possession of assets in disproportion to their known sources of income. They further demanded an inquiry and study of the lifestyle of the employees and officers of the income tax department compared to the lifestyle of the employees and the officers drawing similar salaries in other non-revenue departments of the government. Atrocities and harassment should be stopped immediately and proper investigation should be initiated against the corrupt officers, the letter further stated.
As a Chartered Accountant in practice for past 35 years I have observed that the bureaucracy is becoming more corrupt day after day. We are in a helpless situation.
As a taxpayer and in government service all I say is only tax evaders have problem. The nexus between business owner and department do not remain same some are lenient and corrupt where as some time honest beauracrats comes and they start complaining.
If you don’t evade tax and hide unaccounted money you will suffer.