Action against tax defaulters whose names made public by IT:Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the I-T department would take penal actions only against those wilful defaulters whose names have been made public by the tax authorities.

"The names of the wilful tax defaulters have been published by I-T department. There are about 63 names, subject to verification. These include persons who are not traceable. Action will be taken against them," he told reporters.

The Minister further said that it would be wrong to club the names of wilful defaulters with those against whom the tax department has disputes.

The Income-Tax department regularly comes out with list of tax defaulters with a view to 'naming and shaming' them.

The list, which is posted on the website of the tax department, includes names of the defaulting individuals or entities, their last known addresses, PAN numbers, amount of arrears, last known source of income and the assessment years for which they have not paid their due taxes.

Referring to yesterday's reports that officials would go after tax defaulters using the provisions of arrest, detention and auctioning of attached assets, "totally wrong".