School textbooks to impart lessons on tax compliance

New Delhi: The government will sensitise children about the importance of taxes in nation building through text books.[caption id="attachment_339857" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="PTI"][/caption]"In line with the government's emphasis on promoting voluntary compliance of tax laws and recognising the role of that today's children will play in tomorrow's society, we need to educate them on importance of taxes for the nation building process," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his address to top officials of Income Tax Department here."I am happy to know that the Department has partnered with NCERT to introduce information in this regard in the school textbooks," he informed.The government has been taking several steps to deal with the menace of black money. He said black money eats into the vitals of the national economy and also poses threats to national security through linkages to money laundering and terrorism.Mukherjee also asked the tax officials to pursue "some more" innovative ideas, such as using 'single-window' mobile vans in tier-II and tier-III cities to take the department's service to the taxpayer's door-step and reduce compliance costs."I also welcome the steps that you are taking in training the tax officials in soft skills and ethics, especially on 'traits of consciousness' and 'traits of dependability', with a view to create a more responsive department and encouraging compliance by the tax payers," he added.PTI