The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and all of its field offices across India marked Income Tax Day on its 163rd anniversary today. The field formations organised a variety of events and activities as part of the festivities.

The field formations held events such as outreach programmes for taxpayers recognising their contributions to the nation, taxpayer felicitation programmes, donations for the upgrade of resources like computers to Government higher secondary schools, voluntary token donations to orphanages/old-age homes from departmental employees’ contributions, blood donation camps, setting up medical examination and Covid-vaccination camps, tree planting, and clean-up campaigns.

Additionally, activities including a half-marathon, a cyclothon, the distribution of board games on tax literacy to kids and teenagers, cultural events, the opening of caricature exhibitions, and similar activities were held.

Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, said in her letter to the Income Tax Department that changes made by the government in recent years have ensured a trust-based tax system.

The Finance Minister remarked that the trend of higher tax collections and an increase in the number of Income Tax Returns filed is evidence that the taxpayers have also supported this trust-based strategy.

Sitharaman commended the Income Tax Department for efficiently reorienting itself as a taxpayer-centric organisation and for successfully implementing the policy reforms.

The Finance Minister commended the Department for collecting more than Rs. 14 lakh crore in revenue in the most recent fiscal year, noting that he hoped the Department will continue to build on that success this fiscal year as well.

In his message, Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary noted that a tax department’s duties also include rewarding truthful taxpayers and improving taxpayer facilitation.

These duties go beyond simple tax administration that is efficient and effective. He was grateful that the Department had transformed its operations to be open, non-obtrusive, and taxpayer-friendly in order to better meet the demands and expectations of the general populace.