Bengaluru tax payers are giving us buoyancy, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Bengaluru: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday hailed Bengaluru tax payers for their contributions in building a strong and 'Viksit Bharat’, and said the Department of Revenue is running its entire national faceless income tax assessment scheme from Karnataka's capital city.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone for the upcoming complex “HONGIRANA” for Income Tax officers and staff here, she said the tax payers of Bengaluru have been absolutely giving us the buoyancy, and thanked all individual and corporate taxpayers in this region for making sure for building a strong and 'Viksit Bharat’.

"Your contribution is relentless. There has never been a dip. So thank you very much Bengaluru for keeping that momentum up," she said.

Sitharaman also emphasised the investments that the Central government is making in Bengaluru.

She noted that the Government has brought about the entire faceless system for income tax assessment and ease of doing business to ensure that tax assessees are not harassed and do not have the perception that discretion of the officer who they have to to go and sit and talk to will make their tax payment difficult.

She said the Department's entire central processing centre -- the digital processing unit which governs the entire country -- is located in Bengaluru, driving the income tax system for the whole nation. The faceless system was a big step forward in ease of doing business.

“So money doesn’t go away from Karnataka. It comes back as well and comes back not just like that…Yes it comes back for roads, it comes back for connectivity, it comes back for metro, it comes back for rail, it comes back for the suburban railway system, It comes back for Mangaluru port, it comes back for the 'Kalyana' Karnataka (region) and so on', Sitharaman said.

"But specifically, I want to highlight the fact that Department of Revenue's entire national faceless scheme runs from Bengaluru and you can imagine therefore, the scale of investment which would have happened for that...I am very happy and proud the manpower is also from Bengaluru and they run the whole system for the country ,” the Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka said.