1. The Department of Revenue exercises control in respect of revenue matters relating to Direct and Indirect Union taxes. The Department is also entrusted with the administration and enforcement of regulatory measures provided in the enactments concerning Central Sales tax, Stamp duties and other relevant fiscal statutes. Control over production and disposal of opium and its products is vested in this Department.
2. The Department is also facilitating taxation reforms in the indirect taxes sector for goods and services in coordination with the States. These cover an extended ambit, encompassing the switch-over from erstwhile State Sales tax to Value Added tax, phasing-out of Central Sales tax, rationalization of Additional Excise duties on goods of special importance and eventual evolution of a frame work for dual Goods and Service tax.
3. Tax policies are formulated in order to mobilize financial resources for the nation, achieve sustained growth of the economy, macro-economic stability and promote social welfare by providing fiscal incentives for investments in the social sector. The underlying theme of the tax proposal for the Budget 2015-16 has been clarity in tax laws, a stable tax regime, a non- adversarial tax administration leading to widening and deepening of tax base and a fair mechanism for dispute resolution.
4. The Income Tax Offices throughout the country continued their drive against tax evaders. During the F.Y. 2015-16 (upto 30.11.2015), searches were conducted in 249 groups resulting in seizures of assets worth 469.71 crore and admission of undisclosed income of 6167.12 crore.
During the same period, 1802 surveys conducted resulted in detection of undisclosed income of 3577.12 crore. Prosecutions were filed in criminal courts in 105 cases (upto September 2015) and 345 prosecutions were compounded. As regards assessees, the number of new assessees added during the F.Y. 2014-15 was 76.04 Lakh.
5. The Customs and Central Excise offices continued their drive vigorously against duty evasion. During the F.Y. 2015-16 (Jan. – Dec. 2015), 2304 cases of Central Excise duty evasion involving 5106.41 crore were detected. In respect of Service Tax 7050 cases were registered involving Service Tax evasion amount of `17435.15 crore.
Similarly, 2989 cases were registered evading Customs duty during the F.Y. 2015-16 (Jan – Dec 2015) involving a duty recovery of `2237.47 crore. The drive against smuggling continues unabated. All Commissionerates along the coast, land borders and in charge of international airports remain fully alert to prevent smuggling of contraband, both into and out of the country. As a result, during F.Y. 2015-16, 28588 outright smuggling cases were detected and contraband goods worth 9516.83 crore were seized.