Principal Commissioner of Income Tax Ashish Verma was present on the occasion along with Joint Commissioner of Income Tax Subhrajyoti Bhattacharya.

The event will be held  from Feb 22 to 24.

At the centre, under one roof, new taxpayers will get valuable guidance and help from Income Tax Officers on Income Tax matters, from UTISL agents in allocating PAN numbers, from State Bank of India in making tax payment, and from registered income tax practitioners for helping them in filing Income Tax Returns, and representatives of local traders’ associations and chambers of commerce to tell the new taxpayers about the advantage of having an Income Tax file.

This is another initiative by the Income Tax Department other than identifying potential new taxpayers and writing to them to file income Tax returns in the Department’s website www.incometaxindia.gov.in 

The underlying objective of this programme is to widen the nation’s tax base. This assumes great importance when one bears in mind that while there are 20 crore PAN (Permanent Account Number) holders in our country, of them only 3.5 crore pay Income Tax. 

In the 24 Parganas (North) district, similar Income Tax Facilitation Centres were set up recently in Bongaon, Basirhat and Kanchrapara, and will be set up shortly in Salt Lake or New Town, Barasat,  Barrackpore, Naihati, Sodepur and Baguihati.