IT department to shame big defaulters!

Income Tax department had decided to name and shame its big defaulters in an attempt to recovery taxes. The department on Monday published its first list of 31 defaulters in Newspapers who owe over Rs 1,500 crore tax to the government. These defaulter were not traceable or their assets were too low to obtain the taxes and so the department had published their last known addresses and vital financial details of these entities were published in newspapers.

Earlier these names used to be put up on the website of the Income Tax department which proved to be less useful. With this move of publication in Newspapers, the aim to publicise and put these names in public domain so that the common man can come forward to help the department with the whereabouts of these defaulters.

The department also thinks that this step will enhance public awareness against these entities who are acting against law. Two Hyderabad based companies, Totem Infrastructure (401.64 crore) and Royal Fabrics (Rs 158.94 crore) are on the list. According to government records, Corporate Tax demand pending for collection up to the month of December, 2014 was Rs 3,11,080 crore.