Move to benefit 35 million taxpayers who are salaried individuals

IN A big relief for salaried class taxpayers, central board of direct taxes (CBDT) has exempted those earning up to Rs 5 lakh from filing returns unless they have other sources of income. This is an extension from last year and would be valid for assessment year 2012-13.

The move will benefit large number of salaried people, as out of the country's 35 million taxpayers, roughly half are salaried employees.
Out of this, nearly 45 per cent will be in the income bracket of less than 5 lakh.

"CBDT has exempted salaried employees from the requirement of filing the returns for assessment year 2012-13 if the employee salary income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh and the income from savings bank account and the annual interest earned from savings bank account is less than Rs 10,000," a CBDT notification said on Friday.

Thus, in cases where a salary earner has income from other sources like dividend and interest and does not want to file returns, he will have to disclose such income to his employer for tax deduction.

The notification has further clarified that individuals availing this exemption should have received Form 16 from his employer, should not have any refund claims and his total tax liability should have been paid off by employer by way of TDS.

India's gross direct tax collections went up by 6.7 per cent in the first quarter (April-June) of 2012-13 at Rs 1,11,182 crore as compared to Rs 1,04,135 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal on the back of 13 per cent increase in income tax collection at Rs 40,520

crore as against Rs 35,858 crore in the April-June quarter of 2011-12.

However, the growth in tax collection in the first quarter is virtually half of the 13.9 per cent growth estimated for the entire financial year with a target of Rs 5.63 lakh crore of direct tax collection in 2012-13. Even the collection in first quarter is less than the average collection of over Rs 1,40,00 crore required in each quarter to meet the direct tax collection target in the ongoing financial year.