How Budget 2017 Making Life Difficult For Taxpayers!

The Budget Has Made Numerous Changes in Rules That Make Life Difficult for Taxpayers.

- Dipak Mondal

Murmurs of ‘tax terrorism’ and overreach of tax officials had started doing the rounds after demonetisation. There was hope the Union Budget would dispel these fears. But going by the response of tax experts and businesses, it more or less disappointed.

Several proposals that were not clearly spelt out in the Budget speech but were explained in the Finance Bill — especially those giving sweeping powers to tax officials — turned out to be unsavoury. The Budget, it seems, was driven more by the government’s desire to curb the generation and use of black money than any need to provide a ‘healing touch’ to businesses hit by demonetisation.

Though businesses welcomed the fact that the Budget had no big negative surprise, and even tried to improve the ease of doing business, many could not hide their concerns over what they called the government’s “over-the-top” stance against tax avoidance. A chartered accountant said in an informal discussion that the “government was converting the Income Tax Act into a Criminal Act.”

Fear Factors

The Budget proposes to give more sweeping powers to tax officers. This is giving jitters to the business community. One proposal seeks to give joint directors, deputy directors and assistant directors of the Income Tax Department the power to call for information for any enquiry. Another gives assessment officers the power to provisionally attach a property for six months “to protect the interest of revenue”. These steps have revived fears of ‘tax terrorism’ and harassment of taxpayers. Though the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Sushil Chandra, has said many times that raids would be carried out with “responsibility” and tax authorities would have to submit a note to a high court explaining the reasons for the raid, a large number of taxpayers are not very convinced.