Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a periodic review meeting with Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), here today. The review meeting was attended by the Revenue Secretary; Chairman, CBDT; and all the Members of CBDT.

Inter alia, the Finance Minister reviewed the following subjects:

• Efforts for increasing tax payer base
• Pending disciplinary proceeding cases
• Disposal of applications for condonation of delay and grant of exemptions under certain sections of the Income Tax Act, 1961

During the review meeting, the Finance Minister was apprised about the impact of the following initiatives:

• Introduction of new data sources in Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) like Dividend and Interest; Securities; Mutual Funds and information from GSTN in recent years has led to 1118% increase in reported information. This has resulted in addition of information of about 3 crore persons.
• Introduction of new TDS codes, which have almost doubled from 36 to 65 in last eight years, led to increase in total reported transaction in FY 2021-22 to 144 crore as compared to total reported transaction in FY 2015-16 of 70 crore. This has resulted in increase in number of unique deductees — almost doubled from 4.8 crore (in F.Y. 2015-16) to 9.2 crore (in F.Y. 2021-22).

Smt. Sitharaman was also apprised of the fact that the Personal Income Tax (PIT) to GDP ratio has been steadily increasing from 2.11 in F.Y. 2014-15 to 2.94 in F.Y. 2021-22.

The Finance Minister also reviewed the pending disciplinary proceeding cases against employees/officers and observed that administrative and procedural delays should be minimised. Smt. Sitharaman also directed CBDT to take prompt action in finalisation of such proceedings.

The Finance Minister emphasised that CBDT should ensure timely and appropriate actions on all applications filed by tax payers and desired a reasonable time frame for disposal of such applications. The Finance Minister exhorted CBDT to expand and strengthen its efforts to increase tax payers’ awareness regarding the provisions of the direct tax laws and compliance thereof.

Taxpayer reporting expansion strengthens compliance and prompts directives for faster disciplinary and application disposal processes. The Finance Minister reviewed data-driven measures that expanded reporting through the Statement of Financial Transactions and new TDS codes, noting these increased taxpayer identification and contributed to a rising Personal Income Tax to GDP ratio. She directed reduction of administrative delays in disciplinary proceedings, prompt disposal of taxpayer applications for condonation and exemptions, and enhanced taxpayer awareness and compliance outreach.