Bishnupada Sethi is currently the State’s Special Relief Commissioner, Head of Disaster Management Department, in addition to his duties as Commissioner of Commercial Tax. He joined the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) of Odisha Cadre after his MTech in Industrial Engineering from a reputed national institute at Mumbai. His engineering skills and ingenuity perfectly match with his adroitness to provide the desired leadership in realm of disaster management.
Under his effective leadership through grassroots-level capacity building, decentralised decision-making, effective use of technology and building institutions responsive to disasters, Odisha has climbed to soaring heights of glory earning worldwide acclaim in capacity building to handle multiple disasters. He had opened the innings to his career as Sub-Collector and then worked as Project Director, DRDA, District Magistrate in the KBK region. Having climbed successfully over the hierarchical ladder, he has reached the current position. Sethi has lent Midas touch of gold in his areas of manifold assignments during his long administrative career by bringing about meaningful changes focusing on quality, effectiveness, sound financial discipline and leadership. Besides, he has also served as Secretary to different department like Cooperation, Fisheries & Animal Resources, Excise, Rural Development and Higher Education. During his salad days in KBK, he received appreciation from the National Human Rights Commission for taking effective steps to improve the systems for people’s benefit.
He was chosen for the International Star Award for Leadership in Quality (ISLQ) in Paris in 2015. The Institute of Economic Studies conferred upon him the Udyog Ratan Award for his contributions. He has bagged President’s Silver for successfully conducting the 2011 Census in Odisha. He also worked as Programme Coordinator for UNDP. The NIT Rourkela proclaimed him as Star Alumnus. As the Commercial Tax Commissioner, he is committed to acting with precision in order to hit the bull’s eye by nailing the habitual tax evaders. In an interview to The Pioneer, Sethi spoke to Sugyan Choudhury on many aspects concerning the Commercial Tax Department.
Commercial tax has by now assumed overwhelming proportions. Currently what are the components that contribute to the sum total of commercial tax lying under your lens?
With the passage of time and more particularly after the implementation of GST, the operational area of the State commercial tax administration has been significantly widened. An altogether new area, hitherto not under the State control -- levy of tax on services -- has been an added responsibility and a new challenge. In this regard, the earlier levy of tax on services by the Government of India had not stabilised.
What are the steps taken by your department for arresting tax evasion?
To keep pace and balance with the increased operational area and dimensions, the administrative strategy including the strategy to curb tax evasion and tax avoidance needs reorientation. Now, Enforcement Action Planning is mainly based on data analysis. GST is totally IT-enabled and lots of information are available in the IT system. Accordingly, strategic planning is made easy. It is not like the earlier system of ‘suspect and hit’; it is now ‘plan and hit’. It’s precision strike.
We are also planning policy intervention to take some preemptive measures. It’s to prevent occurrence of fraud and evasion.
What steps are being contemplated to look towards the benefits and interest of the taxpayers?
The target is to remove the fear of the tax compliance through a sound ICT policy and a transparent administrative system. The idea is to enhance the awareness level of the taxpayers through outreach programmes.
Could there be any way for simplification of the cumbersome rules for the taxpayers?
It’s a constant endeavour in tax policy to make tax compliance simple. Lots have been done and lots more are under consideration. Some illustratable steps are: Only one return per annum for the composite taxpayers; four quarterly returns for the small taxpayers with a turnover up to Rs 5 crore; separate simple return form for small retailers supplying only to consumers; filing of Nil return through a single click, etc.
What are the plans on your agenda for galvanising the commercial tax system in the larger interest of the State?
The Government’s objective of meeting the revenue target is the outcome of tax efforts. So, the following tax efforts have been planned and targets have been assigned to meet the end objective: Tax revenue is majorly collected through return mechanism by way of voluntary compliance. So, targets have been assigned to maximise filing of returns by the taxpayers. Returns should be correctly filed in time. Accordingly, target has been assigned for intensive return scrutiny to be followed by appropriate action to resolve the instances of mismatch.
Analytics-based planned enforcement action against habitual evaders to curb tax evasion.
Extensive sensitisation programmes to orient the officers and the taxpayers.