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Mr. B R Balakrishnan, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax: We should Promote Non-adversarial Approach To Tax Dispute Resolution

Mr. B R Balakrishnan, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax today gave a clarion call to Corporate India to encourage a better tax compliance and better approach to tax disputes resolutions.

Delivering the keynote address at a seminar on International Tax and Transfer Pricing organised by Bangalore Chamber or Industry and Commerce (BCIC) in Bangalore today Mr. Balakrishnan who also holds the additional charge of Director General- Investigation said: “Regulators often face the challenge of tax disputes which is not a welcome aspect and always results in tensions between the Enforcer and the Tax payer. Of course, Enforcers need to see that they get a fair share of Taxes collected, but that should not lead to tensions and result in litigations which anyway is not the mandate of the Department”.

Karnataka stands third in the ranking of tax collections and also credited with unearthing a large chunk of unaccounted amount.

As an action plan, he today called upon the industry to look at ways where litigations are kept at the bare minimum and taxes are paid within the framework of the requisite law. Mr. Balakirshnan said that last year the Department was able to collect several crores without going into any litigation. He said: “We should work together to see that on one side we get a fair amount of taxes collected and on the other the Department should not pose too much problems for the industry on reporting”.

Mr. K R Sekar, Chairman of Direct Taxes, Expert Committee, BCIC delivering the Welcome address at the seminar assured the Income Tax Department that Bangalore Chamber has a mandate not to violate the spirit of law. He said: “BCIC is an avid advocate of good corporate governance. One of the mandates that the Chamber promotes amongst its membership as part of good corporate governance practice, is that not to violate the spirit of law.”

Mr. Sekar while pointing out the challenges faced out of dispute resolution panel on international tax and transfer pricing, however, applauded the efforts made by the Government of India in streamlining the APA process.

Mr. Sekar while cautioning the lack of success on dispute resolution, requested the Department to work out a better approach to ensure dispute resolution panel achieves the purpose for which it was set up.

Over 100 tax professional drawn from various industry verticals participated in the day long seminar.