TIOL Awards 2022 - Winners Declared for 3 Categories of Reformist State, State VAT and Income Tax

Rajasthan was adjudged as the most Reformist State by the Jury of the TIOL National Taxation Awards 2022, headed by the former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and mentored by Justice A K Patnaik, former Judge of Supreme Court.

The high-powered jury, at its meeting on Saturday finalised the winners of the TIOL Awards 2022 in three categories - Reformist State, State VAT (SGST) and Income Tax.

As per the Trustee of the TIOL Awards, Mr. Shailendra Kumar, the Gold has gone to the State of Rajasthan and Silver to the State of Odisha. Besides these two awards, the three winners of the "Jury Award"; are the States of Haryana, Bihar and Tamil Nadu.

As many as 18 States actively participated albeit all the States were deemed nominated by the Jury. Thousands of voters cast their votes to choose the winners for carrying out a raft of citizen-centric reform measures in the year 2021.

Every voter with the minimum qualification of being a PAN holder, had to rate the States against the parameters such as infrastructure for industrial and skill development, Government-to-Citizen services through technology, Ease of Doing Business and State incentives, Stamp Duty rate rationalisation and automation, Electricity reforms and promotion of renewable energy, Support to industry and trade, Property and other Municipal tax reforms. Each of these parameters carried certain weightage of marks totalling 80% and the same were added to the marks (20%) given by the Jury, to finalise the winners under each category.

The winners under the State VAT Category are - Gold is bagged by Rajasthan and Silver has gone to Odisha. In total, 18 State VAT Departments actively participated although all the State VAT departments were deemed nominated. The three winners of the 'Jury Award' are the States of Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

The parameters for casting vote under the SGST/State VAT were - whether the process of pre-Show Cause Notice consultations followed as per policy to reduce litigation, whether the VAT authorities had raised certain issues faced by the taxpayers and which led to the successful resolution of the issues, the average response time in working days to resolve queries raised by the taxpayers and whether the taxpayers/voters were satisfied with the refund process followed by the SGST/VAT Authorities.

Coming to the Income Tax Zones under the Category - Tax Commissionerates, the Gold has gone to the Rajasthan Zone of the CBDT, and Karnataka has bagged Silver Award.

The 'Jury Award' has gone to Pune and Mumbai Zones. The same process of selection - voting and jury marks - was followed in this case as well.

The parameters for casting vote under the Income Tax Commissionerate were as to how many taxpayer-friendly initiatives had been taken by the participating zones; what was the average response time in working days to resolve queries raised by the taxpayers; whether the taxpayers/voters were satisfied with the refund process followed by the zonal authorities and whether the taxpayers/voters had benefited from the Faceless Assessment Scheme. Of 21 Income Tax zones, including the Directorate of International Taxation, of the CBDT, as many as 14 Zone aggressively participated this year.

As per the organisers, the results for other categories will be made public on the portal (www.tiolawards.in) as per the following schedule:

October 4: Categories - Customs Zones; CGST Zones & Institutional Game Changers (11 Institutionals which India has built in the past two decades such as Aadhaar, NPCI, NSDL, GSTN, NIC etc were deemed nominated).

October 5: Categories - Deemed Corporate having turnover of above Rs. 5000 Crore; Non-deemed Corporate having turnover of abnove Rs. 5000 Crore and Facilitators such as CAs, Advocates, Industry Associations, CHAs, GSPs, Consultants etc.

October 6: Categories - Deemed Corporate with turnover between Rs. 500 Cr to Rs. 5000 Cr.; Non-deemed Corporate with turnover between Rs. 500 Cr. to Rs 5000 Crore and Tax Technology Service Providers.

October 7: Categories - MSMEs and Future Taxpayers for registered Start-ups.

The TIOL Fiscal Heritage Award 2022 is going to be conferred on Indias former Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, for his Lifetime contribution to economic and fiscal space. This Award is equivalent to Dada Saheb Phalke Award in the film industry. The earlier two winners of this award ware late Arun Jaitley and Dr. Raja Chelliah, former the Chief Economic Adviser to Govt of India. Several dignitaries who will be joining the event to speak about Dr Singhs legacy are - former US Secretary of Treasury and former President of Harvard University, Mr. Larry Summers; the US Congressman, Mr. Raja Krishnamoorthi; the Congress MP, Mr. Shashi Tharoor; former Finance Minister of Punjab, Mr. Manpreet Singh Badal, the Chairman of the Finance Commission, Mr. N K Singh, noted fiscal economist, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Chief Economics Commentator of the London-based Financial Times, Mr. Martin Wolf.

To confer the Award on Dr. Singh, the TIOL Awards has invited Honble Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi along with the Union Finance Minister, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman and Mr. Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Piyush Goyal.

The Awards are to be given away on November 8, 2022 at Taj Palace, New Delhi. Several dignitaries who have confirmed to join the event for giving away the awards are - the Haryana Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Dushyant Chautala; The Tamil Nadu Finance Minister, Mr. P Thiaga Rajan and the Member of Rajya Sabha and the former Dy CM of Bihar, Mr. Sushil Modi.

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