Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday pulled up the CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) and CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs) officials for not responding to grievances of tax assessees. In an interaction with industry in Bengaluru on Monday, she said the two central organisations must engage with assessees effectively, and suggested that they hold meetings with industry every Saturday.
“I’m very curious to know if the CBIC and CBDT are here. Are you all engaging with your own assessees? The questions which are being asked here are not questions where I want the secretaries of the ministry of finance to sit here and explain. These are for the boards,” Sitharaman said at the budget outreach programme in which finance ministry officials met industry and trade bodies.
“You will have to be here, every Saturday. Keep yourself open, and communicate on the phone and emails. Many of the questions here which the secretaries bothered to answer, I would want you to answer in-person to the assessees,” she said.
She was responding to Karnataka Bank CFO Muralidhar Krishna Rao’s question seeking clarity on certain provisions of the GST Act and the direct tax deductions impacting the banking sector.
“Tell them where the hitch is, and if there is a policy tweak required, or if there is a requirement to change something in the finance bill, opportunity is here before you,” she said.
She pointed out that most of the questions asked during the interactive session on the budget were related to the two boards. “It (the questions) just tells me, and I’m sorry to have to comment like this on the boards — Are you all sitting in your office and not even accessing your assessees?” Sitharaman said.
Source: timesofindia.com
***
Don’t miss the next Tax Update / Article / Judicial pronouncement
Subscribe to our newsletter for FREE to stay updated on GST Law
Resolve your GST queries from national level experts on GST free of cost.
Frah Saeed is a law graduate specializing in the core field of indirect taxes and is the Co-founder of taxwallah.com. She has authored many publications on GST and is into full-time consultancy on GST to big corporates. She as a part of taxwallah.com heads a team comprising of Chartered Accountants and Advocates and plays a key role in our mission to disseminate GST knowledge to all.
