The Income Tax Department has asked about 100 political leaders of different parties in the state to pay their due taxes as calculated from their details of assets declared in their affidavits filed before the Election Commission along with their nomination papers.

“We got the information from the Election Commission and have asked around 100 political leaders in the state to pay their income tax to avoid action as per norms,” said BL Razdan, who recently assumed charge as Commissioner, Income Tax.

Razdan said the Jammu region was paying more taxes as compared to the Kashmir valley. Last year, tax collection from Jammu was around Rs 115 crore as compared to just Rs 4.87 crore from the Kashmir region.

“There are various reasons for high tax collection from Jammu as compared to Kashmir as some of the state corporate houses are based here,” Razdan said.

“Last year, tax collection in the state was Rs 454 crore whereas the target for this year was set at Rs 510 crore.

However, the target has again been revised to around Rs 550 crore,” Razdan said.