95% of 850 grievances received last year were resolved within 30 days: K. Meghanath Chowhan

We organised 80 plus webinars and physical awareness meetings last year in Telangana and AP. It is our endeavour to reach out to stakeholders composed of educators, taxpayers and others. Last year we also focused on districts. TDS is one of the main streams of revenue for the Government of India. Direct taxes from 50 to 65% of tax collection, said Mr K. Meghanath Chowhan, IRS; Commissioner of Income Tax- TDS addressing the webinar on Tuesday afternoon.

Telangana and AP stand as one region as far as Income Tax is concerned and stands 6th in India after Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi. Chennai and Pune in tax collection. TDS (Tax Deducted at the Source) as we understand is an activity that involves various stakeholders. Deductors are a very important segment. As the Economy is growing, financial activity is also becoming complex. TDS Provisions or Laws are also evolving from time to time. Now TDS is expanded to many other activities such as online gaming, and cash withdrawals beyond a limit. The technological advancements in the department are providing facilities to deductors and capturing all activities. And department can analyse such data to get information at a click of a mouse Mr. K. Meghanath added

Speaking further he said, the law is clear, and the due date is clear. Adhere to the guidelines.

“We have been proactively resolving taxpayers' grievances. 95% of 850 grievances received last year were resolved within 30 days. The balance of 5% of grievances could not be resolved due to insufficient data. 70 to 80% of the grievances we received were disputes of deductees and taxpayers” said K. Meghanath Chowhan, IRS; Commissioner of Income Tax- TDS addressing the webinar on Tuesday afternoon.

It was organised by the Direct Tax Committee headed by Hari Govind Prasad, Chairman. It was participated by Sri K. Meghanath Chowhan, IRS; Commissioner of Income Tax- TDS; Smt. Aditi Goyal, IRS, Joint Commissioner of Income Tax-TDS, Range 1; Sri P. Krishna Kumar, IRS; Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (OSD) TDS, Circle -1(1); Dr P. Sudhakar Naik., IRS, Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax[1]TDS, Circle 2 (1), Hyderabad; Nikshit Hemendra Shah, Co-Chair, Direct Tax Committee- FTCCI and Managing Committee Members and Past Presidents of FTCCI. In all together over 150 participated in a two and half hours Webinar.

The object of today’s webinar was to put forth grievances and get clarifications from the department vis-a-vis to help the department get feedback from assessees for improvement in its functioning.

Ms Aditi Goyal said the tax paid will help our nation move forward and reach its ambitious goals of a 5 trillion economy and beyond by 30 million by 2050.

Krishna Kumar P another officer said TDS is you pay as you earn. It is an immediate revenue collection for the government. It prevents tax evasion. It widens and deepens the tax net. The stakeholders in the TDS are Deductor, Deductee (Payee)/Tax Payer, Banks/Financial Institutions, IT Department and others. He highlighted and explained a few important provisions of the TDS such as Section 192--TDS on Salary, Rent, Contracts, Interest, TDS for professional or technical services, due dates of filing of e-TDS, consequences in late or not filing etc.

Giving his welcome address, Mr Anil Agarwal, President of FTCCI, congratulated the department for registering a growth of 20.33% in direct taxes collections during the Financial Year- 2022-23. Compliance with tax laws is the shared responsibility of the taxpayer and tax collector. Nevertheless, a tax system can be effective only if it can systematically obtain voluntary compliance with the tax laws by assessees. It is often noticed that a large number of grievances can be resolved, with mutual discussions and regular meetings that can help a lot in creating awareness among taxpayers. In this context, FTCCI requested the department to constitute a grievances resolution committee for mutual advantage.

Sri Hari Govind Prasad, Chair of the Direct Tax Committee of FTCCI, set the tone for the webinar. TDS is voluntary compliance between the deductor and deductee under various income/receipts/payments/transactions generally, he said in his introductory remarks. The Tax deducted at source should be seamlessly available as tax payment at the time of filing the return of income. But due to several lapses such as mentioning of wrong PAN/assessment year/sections/amount, such credit of TDS is not available to the assessee. The deductor's fault on account of the above-stated situation results in double payment of Tax, penalty, interest and recovery/adjustments from due refunds of other years. We have requested the department to give an opportunity to the assessee to get their tax credits by way of physical interaction and representation on submission of supporting documents or evidence in support of their claims, he said.

Several new provisions have been briefed by various officers of the department which have come into effect from 1 st April 2023.

This webinar provided insights into TDS and TCS changes inserted by the Finance Act, of 2023 particularly TDS on income from online gaming, clarification for tax deductibility on benefits/perquisites, enhanced TCS rate on certain remittances made outside India etc