‘IT department has no clue of income tax’

Times of India: Meerut: Friday, 26 September 2014.

The Income Tax department in the city has no details about the total money collected by it in the last three years, a Right To Information (RTI) applicant was told, in response to an application.

Puneet Sharma, the RTI applicant, said, "I filed an RTI to know the amount of money collected from the entire district by the Income Tax department from 2011 till March 2014. My basic motive was to figure out that if the entire district pays a huge amount of income tax, then why must it be deprived of various facilities which the capital of UP otherwise gets."

The RTI application was filed on August 5 at the headquarters of the Income Tax Officer (ITO). At that point in time, Gambhir Singh had served as ITO. The matter was later referred to the joint additional commissioner of income tax, so he could furnish details.

The reply to Sharma's application read: "This is to inform you that no such information is available in this office."

On receiving that reply, Sharma filed an appeal under the RTI Act 2005, seeking details of the amount collected in tax. "The reply is misguiding and unbelievable. How is it possible that details of money the income tax department collects is not available?"