HYDERABAD, Sept 26: The Commissioner, Income Tax Hyderabad Zone, Sardar Aminullah Khan has explained in detail the philosophy of universal self-assessment scheme and its benefits to the taxpayers.

Addressing a full house of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCC&I) recently, he claimed that keeping pace with the other developed tax systems of the world, the government had done away with the decades old assessment system of taxation.

He said that with the introduction of new scheme, the responsibility for determining the income and the amount of tax has been shifted from tax collectors to taxpayers.

Explaining the salient features of the universal self- assessment scheme, the Commissioner said that the government has not imposed any conditionality about income or tax amount to qualify for the scheme.

Elaborating, he said, all returns, irrespective of quantum of declared income and tax paid qualified for the scheme. He said that even the losses declared by the taxpayers would also be accepted by the department.

He said government has reposed confidence in the taxpayers by allowing them to declare any income in the returns. He urged the taxpayers to fulfil their tax obligations honestly to avoid any investigation.

He clarified that taxpayers having an income up to Rs250,000 will not be required to produce the books of accounts in case they were selected for total audit. Sardar Aminullah Khan made it clear that the universal self-assessment scheme is consistent and it will not be announced annually by the CBR.

He said only a fair percentage of returns would be audited. He said that in order to promote voluntary compliance with the tax laws in the country, the department has embarked upon a policy to facilitate and educate the taxpayers.

Earlier, the president of the chamber, Mr Abdul Razzaq Memon, in his address of welcome, highlighted the problems of the taxpayers. The commissioner also answered a number of questions raised by the members of the business community.