Mangaluru: The establishment of a central range of Income Tax (Investigation) wing in Mangaluru helps the department to ensure higher tax compliance in the eight districts coming under its jurisdiction, said Anuja Sarangi, Principal Commissioner of Income Tax (Central), Bengaluru.

After the inauguration of the new office of the Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Range, at Albuquerque House, Pandeshwar, here, Ms. Sarangi said though the central range came to be in 2014, it needed a dedicated office which became reality now. Before the formation of the central range, some districts were covered by offices at Panaji and some at Bengaluru.

The Mangaluru range, covering districts in coastal Karnataka and the hinterlands has huge tax potential following the presence of a variety of industries, ports (Mangaluru and Karwar) etc.

Narottam Mishra, Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Mangaluru, said the new premises was needed following the increase in workload. Every year, about 15,000 new tax payers are added to the pool, he noted. He urged tax professionals to enlighten clients about filing returns for the current and the previous assessment years by March 31 to avoid inconveniences.

Inaugurating the new premises, B.R. Balakrishnan, Director-General (Investigation), Income Tax, Bengaluru, said he insisted on having the formal inauguration to make people aware the presence of the department in Mangaluru among other reasons.

“We work on the basis of trust, believing that the assessees have filed proper returns and it works in 85% cases. However, as is human nature, there are people who attempt to evade payment of tax at a time when the department would have to act,” he said.