I-T investigations and surveillance to be made public

In a first of its kind initiative, income tax investigations, which remained under shroud till now, will be available with toenail details as the Income Tax Department has compiled numerous past high profile tax evasion cases. The recent Vodafone case, in which the Supreme Court had asked the cellular operator to respond to the I-T department notice pertaining to alleged tax evasion, has also been included in the compilation. The compilation of more than 250 pages, including searches and surveys, assessment orders, TDS orders and surveys since year 2004 named as 'Let Us Share', will be released by Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam tomorrow, which would then be available to the public along with chartered accountants and tax lawyers. The readers can "find out how the department seized huge cash at the airport from a taxpayer on the basis of his cell phone number using ITPS, a data mining tool...within just an hour," a glimpse from the compilation reads. "While the compilation brings together the best practices for the department officers, it also acts as a tool to be used for deterrent action against evaders and will help in increasing our outstanding demands and TDS collections by way of value addition to officers," Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Member (Revenue) Saroj Bala told reporters. While compiling this information, it was found that a large number of cases which were successfully contested in the country's courts by the department received "high value assistance" from the officers themselves positively enabling their counsels. – www.economictimes.indiatimes.com