The
IT Act forbids the income tax department from sharing income details of
an assessee unless the Central government specifies an officer,
authority or body to receive the data to perform his or its functions
under a law.Soon
you will have to submit a copy of your income tax return (ITR) every
year to the LPG dealer to claim subsidy on cooking gas cylinders.
With
the voluntary GiveItUp scheme not making much progress, the Petroleum
Ministry has asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to include
the ministry as a recipient of ITRs under the Income Tax Act so that it
could weed out those with annual income above Rs 10 lakh from the
subsidy scheme.
“The
information related to taxable income of LPG consumers is critical to
implement the decision to exclude consumers belonging to higher income
group from availing subsidy, and this information on taxable income of
LPG consumers is required every year,” the ministry wrote to the CBDT
last week.
“Considering
the above, it is requested that the Ministry may be notified under
Section 138 of the Income Tax Act to obtain information related to
taxable income of LPG consumers in the public interest,” it added.
The
IT Act forbids the income tax department from sharing income details of
an assessee unless the Central government specifies an officer,
authority or body to receive the data to perform his or its functions
under a law.
Currently,
authorities implementing the Foreign Exchange Management Act,
Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Serious Fraud Investigation Office
and the National Food Security Act are among the few that have this
permission.
Last
December, the NDA government had announced that taxpayers with an
annual income of more than Rs 10 lakh will not get subsidised LPG
cylinders and that the scheme was to be implemented under
“self-declaration basis” while booking cylinders from January 2016
onwards.
A
government official said that nearly 70 lakh people had given up the
subsidy under GiveItUp scheme since it was launched in March 2015, but a
majority of them included consumers who had shifted to piped natural
gas or are officials of state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs).
“There
are very few with income exceeding Rs 10 lakh who have provided
affidavits and surrendered their LPG subsidy,” he said. “And the current
available mechanism does not provide for collecting ITR from consumers
to ascertain their taxable income.”
In
a separate letter to marketing heads of the three OMCs, the ministry
has modified its December 2015 order saying that those who are excluded
from LPG subsidy in one year could be included the next year provided
they furnish ITR showing that their annual income had fallen below Rs 10
lakh.
“Similarly,
a consumer, otherwise receiving subsidy, will become ineligible to
claim subsidy as and when taxable income of self or spouse is more than
Rs 10 lakh in the subsequent financial year,” it wrote to director
(marketing) of Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum.
May 20, 2016
Kalaivaraikalai
.bmp)
