Rajasva Gyan Sangam to Karma Sangam
KARMANYE Vaadhikaraste - You have the right (power) to work only….
• There should be respect for the rule of law among all citizens, and even fear of the long arm of the law for those who evade taxes.
• Tax administrators must create a feeling of trust among people & ensure people don't fear them.
• India is today at a unique stage in its history, and the high aspirations of its people need to be nurtured by the Government.
• ‘RAPID' charter for tax administrators –Revenue, Accountability, Probity, Information and Digitization.
• Tax officers' behavior should be soft and sober.
• Erase the fear of harassment from the minds of taxpayers.
• Make it easy to pay taxes and difficult to avoid.
• People of this country are not dishonest... and have no problem in paying taxes, but somewhere they have some problem... understand that problem and try to remove it.
If you become taxpayer-friendly, then taxes will automatically come to you.
PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi yesterday urged the IRS officers of CBDT and CBEC to turn Gyan Sangam into a Karma Sangam, so that the ideas generated from this conference lead to concrete action on the ground. The Prime Minister tweeted, "Had a great interaction with tax administrators at Rajasva Gyan Sangam. This is first time CBDT & CBEC are holding a simultaneous conference. Officers shared their views on issues ranging from digitization, voluntary tax compliance, increasing the tax base & other crucial topics.".
In a meeting that was not open to the Press, the Prime Minister interacted with the tax officers. 15 (out of about 300 who attended) IRS officers of CBDT and CBEC (five of them Assistant Commissioners with less than five years of experience) made their suggestions to the PM.
PM knows - Revenue Comes on its own: The Prime Minister made a very significant observation - that 92% of the revenue just flows into the treasury from self assessment, advance tax, TDS etc., The 1.5 lakh strong army of tax officers raise just 8%.
THE IRS View - what they told the PM: If you put together 'THE' and 'IRS', what you get is 'THEIRS'. It is ultimately 'THEIRS'.
These are some of the suggestions/views the IRS officers told the PM.
1. Confused - what should be our priority - tax enforcement or taxpayer friendly attitude. We are confused; we are not sure whether tax enforcement is our priority or to be friendly with taxpayers. This is a dilemma that many young IRS officers face and which senior IRS officers refuse to clarify and so over a period of time, the department is full of senior officers who have this dilemma. A young IRS officer told me recently, "I can't understand this tamasha of assessee friendly gesticulations - after all my job is to collect tax from him and he will not like my actions - there is no scope for friendship with him.". A working Chairman of the Board said in one of our meetings, "at the end of the day we are revenue collectors - and that is what matters to us." Recently a young IRS officer asked this question to a senior Judge who told him, "the taxpayer is your master and you are his servant; it is the taxpayer (citizen) who has appointed you and your boss Narendra Modi. It is he who gave you the power to enforce taxes. You should not treat him like a friend; you should treat him like your master. Your Commissioner, your Chairman, Your Finance Minister and your Prime Minister - they are all - all subordinate to him."
2. Tax Facilitation Act: There should be a Tax Facilitation Act written in simple language in all the regional languages, which can be understood by the common man. The Act should specify the norms and policies for collecting any tax from the citizens. There should be a stipulation that any law (notification) will be explained in local simple language.
3. Physical infrastructure in offices should be improved: Augment the resources and tools of the tax officers so that they can be better equipped.
4. Make e-governance internally too: We have e-filing, e-payment etc for the assessees, but still most of the internal communication within the tax offices is still on paper. E-communication within various offices should be enforced.