"You (CAs and lawyers) are not being debarred. We are giving him (tax payer) an additional window," Arvind Modi, a senior finance ministry official said in an interaction with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the apex body of the accounting professionals.
He said it was "not incumbent" on taxpayers to avail the services of this new class of assesses.
"Sometimes a chartered accountant may be over-qualified from the perspective of the small and medium tax payers. Also, he may have a mental block in approaching a chartered accountant for small work," Modi said, after the ICAI office-bearers expressed concern over the move.
The Budget 2006-07 does not prohibit small taxpayers from utilising the services of chartered accountants. But CAs do not always have time for technical queries of small tax payers and they also are quite expensive for them.
As such, an additional window is being established for small taxpayers, Modi said. The issue stems from the Finance Ministry's proposal to provide opportunities to educated unemployed in this sphere.
Expected to begin as a pilot scheme, the move will see the government training the inductees for preparing tax returns and filing them.
"We are trying to create a body of such people and ensure they are appropriately equipped for the job by training them," the finance ministry official said.
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