Central Excise Day and Investiture – Seelam seeks simplification
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.MINISTER of State for Finance (Revenue) JD Seelam said,
1. Tax officials should act as a facilitator rather than tax administrators.
2. There is a need to widen the tax base.
3. There is need to simplify the tax procedure and make it more transparent.
4. Tax system should be stable so that entrepreneurs know well in advance about his tax liabilities.
5. Tax payment needs to be made a 'Status Symbol' in order to encourage taxpayers to make tax payment voluntarily.
This could be made a standard speech for all Finance Ministers and leaders of the Tax Department, which could be printed and distributed for the next fifty years. We have been hearing the same sermon for the last fifty years.
1. Tax officials should act as a facilitator rather than tax administrators. How can they facilitate when they themselves are not sure and when nobody wants to take decisions
2. There is a need to widen the tax base. Who should do this; who stopped you?
3. There is need to simplify the tax procedure and make it more transparent. Who are you telling this to? Isn't this your job? And with the constant simplification in the last 50 years, you have made the laws so bulky, complicated and outright perverted. Any further simplification is scary.
4. Tax system should be stable so that entrepreneurs know well in advance about his tax liabilities. Again who should do this? The Minister or his officers?
5. Tax payment needs to be made a 'Status Symbol' in order to encourage taxpayers to make tax payment voluntarily. How do you do this when you consistently harass every honest taxpayer and when the taxpayer knows what happens to the taxes he pays.
Well, Mr. Seelam the Hon'ble Minister of State for Finance was speaking at a function yesterday in New Delhi to mark the CENTRAL EXCISE DAY and to hold the Annual Investiture Ceremony for conferment of Presidential Award on officers of the Customs and Central Excise Department.
The function was attended by Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose, CBEC Chairperson Shanti Sundharam, top brass of the CBEC, probationers and retired officers.
Elsewhere in the country, junior officers spent the day protesting against the injustice meted out to them in the matter of service conditions, particularly promotions.