BHOPAL: The economic slowdown has no impact on income tax, said AK Chauhan, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, MP and Chhattisgarh.
Chauhan told journalists on Thursday that 831 prosecution cases were registered against 546 tax payers in both the states.
Six months ago, four tax-payers were punished, he said.
But the income-tax department does not want to create such a situation so it has launched the scheme, he said.
Such people who deposit less amount of tax in the beginning are being observed, he said, adding that the department suspects that they may have other accounts that will be verified.
2.84L new tax-payers: AK Chouhan said 2.84 lakh new tax-payers were included in MP and Chhattisgarh this year. After the school children filled in the declaration forms, 70,000 tax-payers have been added, and accordingly, the number of tax-payer has gone up 26.71 lakh, he said.
Relief scheme window till Dec 31: The department has launched a relief-giving scheme in which tax payers can appeal through compounding process, Chauhan said, adding that, accordingly, a tax-payer does not have to go to court.
December 31 will be the last date to get relief under the scheme, he said.
Relief can be given to those cases which have been pending for more ten years in the courts, but to settle such cases a tax-payer, has to give 3 to 5% of compounding charges. This will save the time of the income-tax department and that of the tax-payers.
Four applications have been received under the scheme and a decision will be taken after verifying the applications, he said.
Persons excluded from relief scheme: Persons who are involved in financial crimes like getting properties registered in the name of others, collecting black money and evading tax will not get the benefit of the relief scheme. Besides, people against whom the CBI or ED or Lokayukta has issued challans will also not get the benefit of the scheme, he said.
