Save us from your income tax officers, they are spreading fear: CAs write to PM Modi, FM Jaitley

In a clearly worded letter, various chartered accountant bodies have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asking them to hold back tax officials instructed to take “all possible actions” to plug revenue-shortfall.

The letter also said that the government must follow the process of law if at all the recovery measures are to be adopted.

In a clearly worded letter, various chartered accountant bodies have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asking them to hold back tax officials instructed to take “all possible actions” to plug revenue-shortfall. The instructions issued by the CBDT to all principal chief income tax commissioners (CITs) to take every possible measure for achieving shortfall of 14.9 per cent in the targeted revenue collection for FY19 has created fear in the minds of the taxpayers, the letter said.
“Such pressures invariably end up in unreasonable and harsh measures being taken to the detriment of tax payers. Such a situation would be in sharp contrast to the stated motto of the government of ushering in a tax payer friendly regime”, it noted.

The letter was jointly issued by the Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society, Chartered Accountants Association Ahmedabad, Chartered Accountants Association Surat, Karnataka State Chartered Accountants’ Association and Lucknow Chartered Accountants’ Society.
“In this background, we wish to request the Honourable Finance Minister and the Honourable Prime Minister to instruct the CBDT and the ground level officers of the income-tax department to not take any action which is not in the larger interest of the tax paying community”, the release noted.
The letter also said that the government must follow the process of law if at all the recovery measures are to be adopted.
Meanwhile, amid muted revenue collection, the government said today that it will borrow Rs 4.42 lakh crore in the first half of FY20 which is 62.3 per cent of the budgeted borrowing of Rs 7.1 lakh crore for the year ending March 2020, Subhash Chandra Garg, Finance Secretary, said. According to Garg, the government will borrow Rs 17,000 crore via GILT every week for 26 weeks in the first half of the next fiscal.