Mechanism be brought to curb tax evasion in entertainment sector: Parliament panel
A Parliamentary standing committee in its report on the Entertainment sector has recommended that a mechanism be brought in place to curb the instances of tax evasion.
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New Delhi, July 26 A Parliamentary standing committee in its report on the Entertainment sector has recommended that a mechanism be brought in place to curb the instances of tax evasion.
"A mechanism be brought in place for continuous review of the possible sources of revenue being generated in the sector and update the system so as to keep pace with the contemporary developments taking place in the entertainment sector," said the report recently tabled in Parliament.
The Committee in its report emphasized upon the need for fine tuning the e-systems coupled with efforts on rationalisation of business codes used for ITR forms, refinement of information sharing mechanism, and strengthening monitoring mechanism.
The Committee appreciated the initiatives taken by the ministry of Finance such as faceless assessment scheme, implementation of non-filers monitoring system, launch of 'project insight' to strengthen the non-intrusive information driven approach to increasing tax compliance and permitting the Aadhaar number to be used interchangeably in lieu of PAN in more than 100 forms.
The Committee in its report noted that there has been a phenomenal growth in the entertainment sector in the form of new segments such as short video platforms, digital streaming services, OTT, animation, VFX, podcasts audio-books and mobile and video games alongside other existing sub sectors such as television, print, films, sports, radio and music etc.
"However, the dynamic nature of the industry poses a challenge of maintaining a balance in growth of new sectors viz-a-viz ensuring that tax revenue is correspondingly enhanced with the rise in avenues of income," said the report.
The Committee also looks towards witnessing the effectiveness of ITBA in enhancing transparency and accountability for better implementation of the Income Tax Act and enhancing the reach of income tax authorities to better target the evolving areas of the entertainment sector," said the report.
