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Don’t close Income Tax offices in Villupuram: MP writes to FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Member of Parliament from Villupuram, D Ravikumar, has written to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman requesting the reconsideration and restoration of the Villupuram Range and Assessment Wards. These offices of the Income Tax Department in the district have been abolished through a notification on October 1. The MP has argued that citizens would now have to travel long distances for a ‘single clarification’.

Stating that the jurisdiction of the Income Tax office was spread over three Lok Sabha constituencies — Villupuram, Arani and Kallakurichi, the MP wrote, “The main reason to have an Income Tax office at Villupuram was to reduce the travel time of the assessees and their representatives to attend their cases. For example, an assessee of Chinnasalem, a town in Kallakurichi District, will have to travel more than 200 km to attend the case at Cuddalore Income Tax office. Moreover, the assessee of Melmalayanur in Gingee Taluk, Villupuram District have to board three buses on various routes to reach the Cuddalore Income Tax office.”

Further, the MP states that the alternate offices are far away. “The ultimate efforts of the assessee at and around Villupuram in bringing the Income Tax Office at Villupuram now going to vanish and they have to travel a long distance to Income Tax Office, Cuddalore even if the assessee needs any clarification or to attend their scrutiny or survey cases at the Cuddalore Income Tax Office or at the Aayakar Bhawan Puducherry they have to travel 100 to 200 km,” the letter said.

Notifying both the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes in New Delhi as well as the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the MP requested the reconsideration of the decision to abolish the Villupuram Range and Assessing Wards. He sought the restoration of the office.

Source: The News Minute