The government's revenue department is trying to ensure that grocery stores, shops and retail outlets are correctly assessed for taxes.

According to senior finance ministry officials, the income tax department has been asked to prepare internal guidelines to bring shops and similar establishments under the tax net. A standard deduction rate for shops -- similar to the one that exists for salaried individuals -- may be in the offing.

"We will arrive at a set of normal expense heads which shops legitimately claim as tax-deductible. Over and above this, a standard deduction can be specified for them," said an official. Expenses over and above this will be suspect, he added.

Officials said though most shops registered a high daily turnover, they evaded tax by showing disproportionately high expenditure on rentals, electricity charges and wages.

They gave the example of several retail shops in Connaught Place which made brisk business, but under-reported their income and thus paid negligible taxes.

The tightening of the TDS (tax deducted at source) mechanism for the salaried class has minimised evasion among individual taxpayers. The non-salaried class and single-entrepreneur-driven activities go unchecked, officials added.

Once internal guidelines are in place and the normal expenditure pattern of shops arrived at, the department would crack down on errant shopkeepers and retail outlets.

"We will undertake surveys and take the appeals to their logical conclusion," said an official.

The revenue department is also working simultaneously on arriving at a random list of tax assessees for scrutiny. The tax returns of the 100,000-150,000 assessees, to be randomly picked up by a computer-generated software, will be thoroughly scrutinised to arrive at a set of parameters where evasion was maximum, officials said.