If you have not filed your tax returns yet, you may face strict action by the income tax department, which has stepped up its prosecution of non-filers with revamped search and seizure operations.
The move to prosecute evaders is being done to ensure the government gets its due revenues especially in the time of an economic slowdown, The Times of India reported.
The new vigour in the tax department could also be because of the new Modi government that has ensured a clean image of the tax department. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had himself asked the department to act tough with tax evaders.
Tax officials will now focus on detection of undisclosed income and assets by accessing additional information. The success of the operations would be based on "civil and criminal proceedings, levy of due interest and penalties and prosecution of tax evaders expeditiously," the officials told TOI.
The move comes after a review by the department that tax evasion can be deterred by "proper assessments, penalty and prosecution."
As per a tax department discussion document, "there is an urgent need to cut down inordinate delays at every level and introducing a system, which does not allow shifting of responsibility between the officers conducting the search and those completing the assessments and subsequent actions."
