Court issues arrest warrant against income tax defaulter

SHILLONG: The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shillong has recently issued a warrant of arrest against a person residing at Pohkseh, Nongthymmai for failing to file returns of income by misusing the provisions of exemption given to income earned by a tribal person from a tribal area.
The Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Shillong detected that the person identified as Aloysis Arengh had huge income from contracts located in a non-scheduled area, which are not legally exempted from purview of income tax.
However, despite repeated counseling attempts, the person refused to file returns of income claiming that as a tribal person, he was not required to file returns at all.
The Income Tax Department as a last resort filed a prosecution case u/s 276 CC of the Income Tax Act, 1961 in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate.
The CJM after carefully examining the facts of the case, and taking note of the non-cooperation of the taxpayer, issued the arrest warrant directing the Officer in Charge, Rynjah Police Station, to produce the person in the Court.
Sources in the Income Tax Department said there were many such cases of misuse of the exemption given to tribal persons in the Income Tax Act, and awareness should be spread about the clear and unambiguous taxability of income (except dividends and interest on securities) earned by a tribal person from an area not covered by the Sixth Schedule.