The government would not withdraw fringe benefit tax, which was introduced in the 2005-06 Budget, but the process would be made less painful, Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman M S Darda said on Friday.
Speaking at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Kolkata, he said: "There is no chance of this (FBT) being reversed."
Darda said the board had been receiving numerous representations on FBT, particularly on the complexities involved, adding that the income tax department has put processes in place to track ostensible expenditure, which would record all high-value transactions.
He said the introduction of annual information return had been helping the department to track all such transactions.
He said the proportion of direct tax to overall revenue collection had been rising over the years. Now, it was around 50 per cent as per the last financial year's figures.
Darda said that worldwide, collection from direct taxes was higher than indirect taxes. The same thing was happening in India now.
About revenue collection till November 10, Darda said that it was around Rs 71,464 crore (Rs 714.64 billion).
He said that, collection figures for the same period last year was Rs 56,994 crore (Rs 569.94 billion).
On banking cash transactions tax also introduced in the 2004-05 budget, Darda said that it had proved very effective, adding that it may be merged with AIR in tracking high-value transactions.
Darda also said that exemptions and deduction clauses should also be done away with to make the tax administration more simple.
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