New Delhi, July 25 (KNN) Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman exhorted the Income Tax officers to be prompt in redressing the grievances of the tax payers and expand the tax base in a non-intrusive manner.

Addressing officers at the Income Tax day celebrations, the Minister asked the department to firmly deal with those who try to evade taxes and game the system while taking steps to provide better tax payer services to facilitate the honest taxpayers.

Borrowing from Kautilya’s Arthashastra, she urged that the department should collect taxes like the Bee who sucks only that much nectar from the flower as is absolutely necessary, the Finance Minister added.

She said the three enforcement wings of the revenue department - the Income Tax department, the Enforcement Directorate and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence - should share the information about assessees base and profile of assessee for better coordination in identifying of tax evasion/ avoidance.

Also, she congratulated the department for working towards changing the mindset of the people and continues to work to reduce the trust deficit thereby helping them to become more tax compliant.

The  Minister  released a departmental publication titled ‘Investigation of Accounts’ and launched an in-house e-journal “Taxalogue” or Dialogue on Taxes, which is a new initiative taken by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) being a quarterly e-journal where one can contribute articles on issues pertaining to taxation.

Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs , Anuraj Singh Thakur launched the ‘Publicity Kit for Outreach Programmes’ developed by the department to facilitate easy availability of publicity material to field offices of the department for conducting outreach programmes for increasing tax awareness among the public.

He underlined the importance of mobilization of resources as an important component in the vision of new India as envisioned by Prime Minister. He urged the department to take steps to encourage voluntary compliance and to address grievances especially pertaining to senior citizens and specially-abled persons.

Revenue Secretary, Ajay Bhushan Pandey congratulated the department for becoming one of the few organizations in the world to have switched to almost cent percent e-filing in such a short time.