FinMin, RBI firming up TIN to plug tax evasion

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank plan to put in place a Tax Information Network (TIN) proposed by the Kelkar Task Force, in a bid to improve tax administration and check evasion.
A high-powered committee comprising officials of Ministry of Finance and RBI, is working on TIN and a framework would be finalised within this fiscal, official sources told PTI here on Wednesday.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes has taken up the project with RBI to modernise tax administration in line with that suggested last year by the Task Force under Vijay Kelkar, advisor to Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.
When contacted, RBI officials said this is one of the most important projects which would require use of latest technology blended with financial acumen.
The proposed TIN system would be capable of assessing the tax deducted at source (TDS) of all tax payers, processing advance tax collection and facilitating refunds.
However, banks would have to be networked to the TIN for receiving payments online besides instant accounting of tax collections and digitised TDS returns.
On this issue, RBI officials said the apex bank was firming up plans to introduce Real Time Gross Settlement system, which would ensure transfer of funds within a day.
Once TIN is in place, processing of all tax returns can be done within four months, official sources said.
Tax department can then concentrate on its core function of assessment and inspection.
Kelkar had proposed that the Tax Information Network (TIN) system could be put in place utilising the nationwide network of National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) to tone up tax administration.
Government could outsource NSDL''s hardware and software infrastructure, which can be readied within four months, Kelkar had suggested.
The existing cumbersome and manual systems could be replaced by more efficient IT-based systems with banks authorised to issue computerised refunds on the lines of dividend and interest warrants issued by companies.