Daijiworld Media Network

Mumbai, Mar 30: Several chartered accountants across India have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley asking them to stop tax officials who have been directed to take “all possible actions” to recover tax amid a shortfall in revenue collection.

Various chartered accountant bodies including Bombay Chartered Accountants' Society, Chartered Accountants Association Ahmadabad, Chartered Accountants Association Surat, Karnataka State Chartered Accountants’ Association and Lucknow Chartered Accountants’ Society have sent a clearly worded letters to the central government.

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In the letter, the chartered accountants stated that 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 further stated that such pressures by the tax officials invariably end up in unreasonable and harsh measures being taken to the detriment of tax payers. They said that such a situation would be in sharp contrast to the stated motto of the government of ushering in a tax payer friendly regime.

The chartered accountant bodies have urged the PM and the finance 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 taxpaying community. It also requested the centre to follow the process of law if at all the recovery measures are to be adopted.

Meanwhile, Subhash Chandra Garg, finance secretary said that the central government will borrow Rs 4.42 lac crore in the first half of FY20 which is 62.3 per cent of the budgeted borrowing of Rs 7.1 lac crore for the year ending March 2020. He further said that Rs 17,000 crore will be borrowed via GILT every week for 26 weeks in the first half of the next fiscal.

(Inputs from agencies)