India might not have shined during the proverbial "India Shining" campaign by the central government during the NDA regime but it appears to be heading towards that eventuality, thanks to the common man who has made it possible. Well face the facts the common man like you and me has returned direct taxes to the tune of Rs. 3,14,466 crores during 2007-08 against Rs. 48,280 crores in the Financial year 1997-98.

The Income Tax department never had so good. But some of the measures taken up by the Finance Ministry (Tax division) has worked well for the Tax collection the net direct tax collections in the first four months in the present financial year  stood at Rs.71,648 crore, going up from Rs.48,756 crore in the corresponding period in the last FY registering a growth of 46.95 percent. Growth in Corporate Taxes was 50.08 percent (Rs.41,598 crore as against Rs.27,718 crore), while Personal Income Tax including Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) Securities Transaction Tax (STT) and Banking Cash Transaction Tax (BCTT) grew at 42.82 percent (Rs.29,982 crore as against Rs.20,993 crore).

One of the measure was the Business Process Re-Engineering which has opened up new vistas for widening the tax net and bringing more tax payers into the net. The Process has created a net base of 3crore tax payers in the country by the Financial Year ending 2007-08 taking it up from only 1.5 crore tax payers in 1997-98.

A central Directorate of Business Process Re-Engineering was specially created in 2006 to take the tax collection to a new height, while the department has been revamped to meet the new challenges by including some changes in operations, functions and performance. The directorate is headed by an officer of the rank of Director General of Income Tax.

PriceWaterhouse Coopers the international auditing consultants was appointed as external consultant specially for the Business Process Re-Engineering programme. According to the executive summery of the project the objectives aimed at providing better taxpayer services reducing compliance burden on tax payers and improving enforcement.

The initial reports from 15 locations which included metros Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, mid-size cities Hyderabad, Nagpur, Patna, Bhopal, Mysore, Lucknow, Guwahati, Ludhiana and Shillong and moffusil areas like Hajipur, Mandya and Itarsi indicate that the tax compliance from the tax payers has increased manifold.