news details |
|
|
| Valley: Not paradise for tax man | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Oct 5: As from separatists to mainstreamers and from traders to clerics all gang up against shelling out a part of their earning for services they enjoy, Kashmir Valley against becomes a place in India when Income Tax men hesitate work.
In run up to the twice extended deadline, when Income Tax department issued notices to the traders and top defaulting businessmen in Kashmir, all lines blurred and voices unites to say –“government of India, by a careful design is intimidating the Kashmir businessmen”. Some have even gone to the extent of saying that IT men have no business in Valley in season of Azadi slogans. Despite notices, this year the tax collection in Valley is going plummet all time low of last 15 years.
IT officials say nothing usual has been written to traders in Kashmir. Notices are issued in cases of default or even in misunderstandings of statement. “This is done across the country and many such notices have been issued in Jammu as well”, an IT official, who did not wish to be named, told EARLY TIMES. When asked what happens on issuing notices, the official said, “it is a simple procedure…if they is some misunderstanding that is removed in hearing and if there is a default the traders are asked to clear”.
In the IT circles it is a well established opinion that ff there is one place in the country where they don't want to be posted, it is Kashmir. And this is for the simple reason that nobody in the Valley wants to pay up. “Tax collection in Kashmir is not even 10 per cent of what should have been paid by the traders”, says the official.
More problematic for the department is the fact that since the last few years there has been a sharp downward trend in what has never been a bright spot for the I-T department.
On January 7, 2004 attack by terrorists this year at the I-T office in Srinagar worsened matters.
An important reason for paltry collections is propaganda by Hurriyat leaders and even mainstream parties who preach that it is "un-Islamic" to pay taxes. Or that in Kashmir, because of the political turmoil, the government has no business asking citizens here to shell out cash. Those gaining from this are obviously the political leaders, separatists and otherwise.
Income tax raids by a team from Delhi in 2002 recovered Rs 15 lakh in cash, $20,000 and five vehicles from the Peer Bagh residence of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a staunch separatist leader. There are cases pending against Hurriyat leaders like the slain Abdul Gani Lone and Mirwaiz Molvi Umar Farooq.
It is no surprise that a Hurriyat leader has purchased property at Karan Nagar in Srinagar from a US-based Kashmiri Pandit at a whopping Rs 1.50 crore.
This dislike for paying taxes is both routine and endemic. Dozens of I-T officials from Punjab and Delhi were manhandled by supporters of former chief minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in the early 1980s.
The J&K CM had then publicly denounced the I-T raids and described it as interference in states affairs. On the I-T list was a relative of his.
Interestingly, drawing and disbursing officers (DDO) in various state government departments, including Jammu and Kashmir police, let employees skip tax in exchange for a small bribe. Senior police officers say this is quite rampant.
Trying to instill a sense of responsibility in people, few years back a senior IT official started organising seminars and debates in Srinagar, but the results are yet to trickle in. "It is an uphill task even to get a rented accommodation to run the office," the officer has then remarked. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
