IIMB signs MoUs with Karnataka Government’s Commercial Taxes Department to make tax administration more data driven and professional

Bengaluru: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) has signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with the Commercial Taxes Department (CTD), Government of Karnataka, on March 06 (Wednesday), 2019, one for capacity building programmes for the CTD officers for three years in IIMB, and another collaborative MoU for Big Data Analytics for tax administration. This approach of the department makes tax administration more data driven, with IIMB’s support to the Government to bring professionalism in tax administration.

This is a paradigm shift in the approach of the Government of Karnataka with its vision for the future, to stabilise tax administration supported by IIMB, to bring professionalism in tax administration and to build a platform for CTD for big data analytics for revenue stabilisation by providing solutions through research analysis.

In the background of introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the country, there was a need to upgrade the skills of officers of the CTD to have new orientation towards GST as the new law has been totally IT driven.

Usage of technological innovation, business analytics, data driven decision making skills and management of tax administration in a more professional manner were the need of the hour.

IIMB was approached by CTD in May 2018 in consultation with the Government of Karnataka, as IIMB is a premier institution in the country and professionally equipped to handle and impart management development skills, Big Data Analytics, forecasting revenue, preparation of watertight investigations, reinvention, transformation and other critical areas of empowerment required to upgrade the skills of the officers.

Thereafter, IIMB conducted training for 123 senior management-level officers during the current financial year. The professional approach of IIMB faculty helped CTD realize the objective of capacity building and the Government of Karnataka granted permission to the Commercial Taxes Department to undertake training for 360 officers for the next three years, with 120 officers per financial year.

To undertake the Capacity Building Programme with module-based training to further the economic perspective, and to enhance the managerial ability and efficiency of the officers of the CTD, IIMB would design and conduct training programmes for CTD officers.

One of the important learnings from IIMB by the officers has been the importance of Big Data analytics in tax administration.

Expertise of IIMB in Big Data Analytics, NIC’s software skills and CTDs domain knowledge could form a symbiotic relationship to achieve the desired objectives. Government of Karnataka has also accorded permission to CTD to undertake Big Data Analytics on GST data to find insight in collaboration with IIMB.