Commercial Taxes Department

POLICY NOTE - 2002-2003

DEMAND No.10

 1.      INTRODUCTION

1.1  Commercial Taxes earn the highest tax revenue for the Government of Tamil Nadu. In order to meet the increasing requirement of funds for Welfare and Development Schemes, the taxation policy of the Government aims to mobilise higher revenues and also  widen the tax base so that the commodities where the tax rates are already high, are not over burdened with taxation.. At the same time, care is also taken not to over burden  the common man. The underlying emphasis of the whole taxation policy is to improve the pace of economic development. 

1. 1.2  ACTS ADMINISTERED BY THE COMMERCIAL TAXES DEPARTMENT 

The Tamil Nadu  General Sales Tax Act, 1959
The Tamil Nadu Additional Sales Tax Act, 1970
The Central Sales Tax Act, 1956.
The Tamil Nadu Entertainments Tax Act, 1939
The Tamil Nadu Local Authorities Finance Act, 1961
The Tamil Nadu Betting Tax Act, 1935
The Tamil Nadu Tax on Luxuries Act, 1981
The Tamil Nadu tax on Entry of Motor Vehicle into Local Areas Act , 1990
The Tamil Nadu Advertisements Tax Act, 1983.
The Tamil Nadu Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Areas Act 2001 

2        ORGANISATION AND FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT:- 

The Commercial Taxes Department  at the field level is headed by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes who is assisted in the Head Quarters by a team of Joint Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, Assistant Commissioners in charge of different wings of the Department. There are  10 Territorial Divisions and 8 Enforcement Divisions (including one Inter State Investigation Cell) in the Department. 

1. 2.1  ASSESSMENT WING: 

For the  conduct of  assessment, levy and collection of taxes payable under the various Acts administered by the Department, there are 10 Commercial Taxes Divisions in the State. Each Division is headed by a Deputy Commissioner.  These Divisions are further divided into 40 Commercial Taxes Districts;  in Chennai and Coimbatore the Commercial Tax Districts are designated as Zones. There are 323 assessment circles, including 6 Fast Track Assessment Circles (4 in Chennai and 2 in Coimbatore headed by Assistant Commissioners). Out of the  323 assessment circles, 6 are headed by Assistant Commissioners, 236  by Commercial Tax Officers and 81 by Deputy Commercial Tax Officers. 

2.2  AUDIT WING: 

Internal audit is very important  in a taxation department. For this purpose there is an internal audit wing consisting of 40 Audit Parties.  All the assessment records are audited both by the Internal Audit and the Accountant General. Follow up on the audit reports of Internal Audit and Accountant General Audit are attended to by a separate cell under the supervision of Joint Commissioner (Audit) in the Office of the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes. The work done by the Audit Wing during the year  2001-2002 (up to February, 2002 ) is as follows:- 

2.3  ENFORCEMENT WING:              

In order to prevent tax evasion, there is an Enforcement wing consisting of 7 Deputy Commissioners, 10 Assistant Commissioners and 15 Commercial Tax Officers in seven Enforcement Divisions. There are twenty nine Commercial Tax check posts and 48 Roving Squads under the control of the Enforcement set up.  There is also one Deputy Commissioner who heads the Inter State Investigation Cell.  This wing undertakes inspection of shops, cinema theatres, checking of vehicles etc. 

1. 3.      APPELLATE  FORUMS 
1. 3.1       FIRST APPELLATE AUTHORITY 

The first layer of appeal consists of 20 Appellate Assistant Commissioners and two Appellate Deputy Commissioners - one in Chennai and the other in Coimbatore. These Appellate Assistant Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners function under the administrative control of the Chairman, Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal. The number of appeals disposed of by the Appellate Assistant Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners during 2001-2002 is 14,556. 

1. 3.2       SALES TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL:           

Appeals arising out of the orders of  the Appellate Assistant Commissioners and Appellate Deputy Commissioners, are dealt with by the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal. There are four Benches of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal. The Main Bench is at Chennai and the three Additional Benches are at Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai. 

The Main Bench at Chennai comprises of a Chairman in the cadre of a District Judge, a Departmental Member in the cadre of Joint Commissioner and a Second Member  from the Indian Audit and Accounts Service. The Additional Benches are headed by the Additional Judicial Member in the cadre of Sub-Judge and an Additional Departmental Member in the cadre of Deputy Commissioner . 

The number of cases disposed of during the year 2001-2002 is 3831.   

3.3  TAMIL NADU TAXATION SPECIAL TRIBUNAL: 

The  Tamil Nadu Taxation Special Tribunal functions at Chennai. The Tribunal consists of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Judicial Member and Administrative Member. The number of cases filed and disposed of during the year 2001-2002 are 1613 and 446 respectively. 

4.   COMMERCIAL TAXES STAFF TRAINING INSTITUTE, CHENNAI :

For training of Departmental Officers and staff, there is a Commercial Taxes Staff Training Institute which started functioning at Chennai from 1982. The Institute conducts refresher courses and special lectures in areas of tax administration. It also provides training in computers and on Value Added Taxation. The Institute has a teaching faculty headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, assisted by two Assistant Commissioners of Commercial Taxes and one Commercial Tax Officer. The computer training faculty is headed by an Assistant Director of Statistics. 

The performance of the Institute is given below: -