A Step Ahead - Income Tax Department, Gujarat
WITH a background of footprints on sand, the inner pages sprinkled with quotes by HenryWadsworth Longfellow,Michal J.Fox, Confucius, John W Gardner, Vince Lombardi, Pat Riley& Ted W Engstrom, the Income Tax Department, Gujarat has released a book for departmental officers titled ‘ A Step Ahead '. The tagline is that the book is a compilation of contentious issues in Assessment.
The genesis of this book (running into more than 500 pages) is an exercise carried out to compile best quality assessment orders passed in each Chief C.I.T region of Gujarat during the Financial Year 2011-12. It is mentioned that on analyzing these orders it emerged that majority of additions were relatable to issues pertaining to 19 topics.
And so, nineteen, truly incisive and analytical, essays have been authored by nineteen officers of the rank of CsIT& Addl. CsIT. / JCIT. Each officer was assigned a topic for in-depth analysis with the view to guide and help A.Os to understand the intricacies of various provisions of law.
The book begins with a disclaimer and which is a normal phenomenon. But since it is meant for private circulation amongst the departmental officers, we wonder who the disclaimer targets.
The foreword says - ‘ It is a small step towards quenching the thirst for knowledge related to the taxation field; hope that this book will prove useful to officers and staff of the Income-tax Department not only in the State of Gujarat but also in other parts of this wonderful country.'
It is also mentioned in the foreword that if the response to this book is positive, we propose to take out a second compilation analyzing the various industries in the State of Gujarat soon.
Notwithstanding the positive or negative response to the book, DDT feels that the Department should come out with the second compilation and allow such publications to also reach the hands of the taxpayers. After all, educating your taxmen and the taxpayer is the sine qua non of a transparent and non-adversarial tax administration.
The 1st Edition, 2013 of the book has been issued by "The Cheif Commissioner of Income Tax, AayakarBhavan, Ahmedabad" [ The printer's devil is at play! ]
DDT hopes that this small step would turn out to be a giant leap for the Department.