With North East, especially Assam, witnessing unprecedented flow of investment in diverse sectors in the last few years, the Income Tax department has a good opportunity to widen the tax net of the department in this part of the country. This was stated by Saroj Bola, member, Revenue, Central Board of Direct Taxes, while talking to this correspondent here today.

Asian Development Bank is investing Rs 35,000 crore in the region and the frequency of public and private investment too is increasing manifold, which leaves a vast scope or the IT department to explore, Saroj said on the sideline of a convocation ceremony organised to give away certificates to 42 newly-inducted Tax Return Preparers (TRPs).

Vinod Khurana, chief commissioner (Guwahati), Income Tax department, when quizzed by this reporter, stated that the global economic slowdown has affected the tax collection in the North East along with the rest of the country and the department is taking a slew of measures to widen the tax net in the region.

Khurana, however, divulged that the department, in spite of the meltdown, is confident of collecting at least 25 to 30 per cent more revenue in the next financial year compared to last years approximate budget of Rs 2,000 crore for the North East.

We are trying to bring the convenience of tax filing to the doorsteps of the tax payers by various means and also keep a check on those trying to evade taxes, said Khurana, adding that the online system of filing tax would go a long way in boosting revenue collection.

Earlier, VK Gupta, chief commissioner (Shillong and Kolkota), while addressing the convocation ceremony here today, said that the TRPs from the region have done exceedingly well and said: The TRPs have been inducted to simply the procedure of tax payment and they have been trained to address the tax filing needs of the region through a rigorous training.

TRPs is an initiative by the department of Income Tax to increase awareness of tax laws by enhancing community participation with NIIT being mandated to train the certified TRPs across the country.

Senior officials like Kalyan Chand, director general of IT Administration and Vipul Rastogi, head, Enterprise Solution (India) NIIT were also present on the occasion.