CBDT Sets Up Committee to Recover Tax Arrears and to Review the Policy of ‘Naming & Shaming’

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex-policy making- body of direct taxes in India recently issued an Office Memorandum to constitute a 7 member committee to recommend measures for expeditious recovery of tax arrears.

The committee, headed by shri. Aditya Vikram (Pr. DGIT), 5 other members and a member-secretary, is formed to advise the various tax recovery measures to the Board. The committee will submit its report by 15 July 2017.

One of the main function of the present committee is to review whether the Government’s new policy of “Naming and shaming” has served its purpose. The committee is entrusted with the following other functions;

1. To study the broad categories under which arrears of taxes are classified and suggest class-specific measures for expeditious collection or otherwise liquidation of such demands.
2. To study the age profile of the outstanding taxes and make policy-level recommendations for dealing with demand which is older than a certain number of years.
3. To analyze whether certain charges or regions are more prone to raising demand which remain uncollected for long periods and suggest measures for collecting the same.
4. To make recommendations on any other issues relating to collection and management of tax dues.

The Government had appointed a committee with a similar objective in the year 2011. The committee, under the chairmanship of Anita Kapur, director general Income Tax (Admn) examined the ways to recover tax from non-traceable assessees or where assets are not available for recovery.

Read the full text of the Office Memorandum here.