Salaried taxpayers to get SMS alert on TDS
The income-tax department will now send SMSes to salaried taxpayers on their tax deducted at source or TDS.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday launched the service. Central Board of Direct Taxes or CBDT will soon offer this facility on a monthly basis.
Jaitley said the salaried class cannot afford to pay tax twice or indulge in litigation; hence they should be updated on TDS.
"So, they can match the office salary slip and the SMS and at the end of the financial year be clear about any possible tax dues," Jaitley said.
He asked CBDT to take grievance redressal system for TDS mismatch online. Jaitley said e-Nivaran is working well for taxpayers and CBDT is taking several taxpayer-friendly initiatives.
CBDT will soon extend this SMS facility to another 44 million non-salaried taxpayers. "The frequency of SMS alerts will be increased, once the process for filing TDS returns is streamlined to receive such information in real time," CBDT said.
CBDT Chairperson Rani Singh Nair said the tax department is encouraging people to register their mobile number on the electronic-filing website.
She said taxpayers will initially receive a welcome message from CBDT informing them about the facility; after that, each assessee would be sent messages informing them about their TDS.
In case of a mismatch, they can contact their deductor for necessary correction.
Besides, SMS alerts will also be sent to deductors who have either failed to deposit taxes deducted or failed to e-file TDS returns by the due date. The Delhi High Court (HC) on Monday stayed the execution of non-bailable arrest warrants issued by a trial court against three executives of real estate firm Unitech — chairman Ramesh Chandra and managing directors Ajay Chandra and Sanjay Chandra.
HC judge Mukta Gupta granted them relief from arrest till the next date of hearing before the trial judge, on assurance that they would appear in the lowercourt proceedings. The trial court had first issued bailable warrants against the Unitech officials on October 4, after they had failed to appear before the court in response to summons issued in connection with a complaint alleging delays in handing over of flats to buyers. As the Chandras were not present on the next date of hearing on October 17 as well, the lower court issued nonbailable warrants to ensure their appearances in the court.
In Monday’s hearing, senior lawyer Sudhir Nandrajog appearing on behalf of the accused, submitted that neither the summons nor the bailable warrants had ever been served to the trio.
The counsel for the Unitech executives also questioned the trial court’s decision to issue non-bailable warrants without proper execution of the bailable warrants first, according to him.