The Income-Tax Department must progressively reduce the time taken for refunds from the present period of more than four months to a maximum of 60 days, Mr S.S. Palanimanickam, Minister of State for Finance, has said.
There is also a need to review and revamp the existing Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) administration, he said in his valedictory address at the 26th Annual Conference of the Chief Commissioners of Income-Tax (CCIT) and Director General of Income Tax (DGIT) here on Thursday.
Mr Palanimanickam noted that the Department’s efficiency had to be benchmarked by the satisfaction level of the users. He highlighted that a major source of dissatisfaction of income-tax assessees is with respect to refund of taxes. “The time taken to grant refunds is very high when compared to international standards,” the Minister said, adding that the department should set up a task force to revamp the system of tax refunds.
The objective of the revamp should be to progressively bring down the time taken for refunds to a maximum of 60 days. He also pointed out that the taxpayers are facing difficulties in getting credit of the TDS paid by them.
Mr Palanimanickam, who is in charge of revenue and tax administration at the central level, stressed the need for taxpayers to receive uniform treatment of their cases in any part of the country.
“In order to ensure uniformity of approach and transparency in its functioning, the Department should put in place a mechanism to disseminate information on all such important orders, judgments to all field formations,” he said. He also urged the CBDT to take up cadre restructuring in right earnestness, stating that it was important to satisfy the professional aspirations of officers in a timely manner.
The Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had in his inaugural address on Wednesday laid emphasis on taking up cadre restructuring proposal, which had been delayed.
Meanwhile, Mr Palanimanickam urged the Income-Tax Department to “actively work” on a proposal to enhance delegation of financial powers to its field formations. “To ensure better coordination of expenditure on human and material resources, the department should consider setting up of a dedicated Directorate of Finance. There is an urgent need to tone up the vigilance machinery of the Department. It is imperative that the Department fixes timeframe to decide vigilance related cases,” he said. He also highlighted the delay in compiling the monthly revenue figures within the first week of the following month. “I would like to be apprised of the bottlenecks, if any, in timely compilation of the revenue figures,” Mr Palanimanickam said.
My PAN AAJPR9011M. Refund is due for 2008-09. I have sent reminders periodically to both ITI 15(1) and PTO Bangalore. I have been informed tht the “Greivance Cell” is handling the case. Full details including my Acct No Bank address etc have been given already to ITO 15(1)
Please ask Grievance cell to expedite the payment
Thanks
Lt COL G P RAO(Retd)
Mr.M G Malleshi, you can try the RTI Act to get the refund which is pending for over 3 years in your case. The details are given in the following link of taxguru.in:
https://www.taxguru.in/rti/income-tax-refund-and-right-to-information-act-rti.html
If you have sent any reminders to your IT Officer in regard to the pending refund, please attach copies of these reminders to your RTI application. Your assessing IT Officer is also the Information Officer. Please follow the guidelines given in the above mentioned website link scrupulously, attach a Rs 50/- postal order. The name of the payee to be given on the IPO should be ascertained from the ITO himself. Please obtain the acknowledgement of the IT Office on a copy of the RTI application which should be worded carefully and politely as mentioned in the article given in the above link.
There is no separate form to fill in for reminding the IT Officer for a pending refund.
I have known of a case where, by following the guidelines given in the above link, an assessee obtained his pending refund (in Dec. 2009) with interest for AY 2004-05 within a month, and also received a letter from the IT Officer saying that for the other pending refunds, he is unable to locate the papers in his office! So please try this method. If there is no response from your IT Officer for over one mont for the RTI application, you can send an appeal to the appellant authority (who is usually a Deputy/Joint Commissioner of Income-Tax supervising the IT Officer). If even this fails, then you can approach the IT Ombudsman in your area. Good luck.
tHE mINIATER IS TALKING OF REFUND WITHIN 60 DAYS BUT THE dEPARTMENT SAYS THAT A REFUND UNDER ecs SYSTEM WILL TAKE 45 DAYS WHICH ACTUALLY SHOULD TAKE SOME HOURS BUT NOT MORE THANA DAY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE WHEN COMPLETE DETAILS OF bANK ACCOUNT HAS BEEN PROVIDED. EVEN iNCOME tAX oMBUDSMAN SHOW HIS HELPLESSNESS IN SUCH REFUND MATTERS. PLEASE TAKE SOME POSITIVE AND TRANSPARANT STEPS TO AVOID HARASMENT TO ASSESSES. THANKS
delay in refunds- staff not to be blamed. one TA/Sr.TA with one Assessing Officer in a Ward handling more than 10,000 returns inclusive of about 4000 refund cases, poor connectivity, faulty postings of Challan by banks, defective e-TDS filing, wrong quoting/incorrect PAN/TAN are few of the human errors not attributable to the AO and its staff but in fact are the major contributers towards delaying of refunds.Just because of few black sheeps(who are always part of every social organisation), the whole of the department should not be discredited and rather the bulk of staff working for more than the duty hours, so as to complete processing of ITRs within the shortest period, should be rewarded with atleast a few praising words.
REgarding the staff,, are too short… What ever available , are un-e-skilled.
Though the available skilled staff, the software does not supports the refund system.
Infrastructure is very poor.
In case of any problem with reference to computer, software, connectivity, etc.. no information available to sort it out.
Though the Assessing Officer will be held responsible for the incorrect credit of TDS.
CADER RESTRUCTURE is delayed. CBDT is responsible for that. Even FM and state FM is not able to control the promotion calander..
So do not blame only staff..
There are number of incorrect PAN / TAN quoting. How it can be matched with the credit of the TDS?
Refunds within 60 days is mockery for the tax-payers. Mr. N.G. Malleshi is still to receive refund for A.Y.2006-07. Dear, Mr. N.G. there is no prescribed form under I.T. Act.
It is generally in such high level conferences such issues are quoted to get the publicity for the department.However, the practical situation is horrible. Generally you cannot get a refund within one year also , what to talk of sixty days. Moreover, situation has worsened this year as the Credit of paid taxes in the form of TDS as well as Advance tax is not appearing in the system for one fault or the other.In majority of the cases instead of refunds due, demands are being created.The department keeps on retaining the unmatched credits while creating the demand for taxes due.In my view, the department should initiate steps to educate the tax payers and the staff of the department.Besides, in order the clear the back log, special task force should be deputed to trace the unmatched credits so that the demands are not created despite of taxes having been paid.
Incentive to staff for achieving NIL pendency of refunds and rectification due and Punishment to staff with higher pendency of these issues would serve as carrot and stick technique to deal with this situation.
Thanks
Ravinder Khullar
Sir,
I have to get the refund of IT with respect to the returns filed for the AY 2006-07.
I am told by the Mysore IT officials that, I need to submit affidavit on a prescribed form duly attested by a NOTARY.
May I request to kindly advice me which of the IT forms I should use for the purpose.
This is a much needed proposal which unfortunately would remain on paper. Unless the staff of I-T Dept. comes in time to the Office and works diligently, it would be impossible to make refunds within 2 months! There is no control on attendance and measurement of work. For AY 2008-09, it seems that the related software has not been received! Making refunds within 2 months would also reduce corruption. The Govt. should publish statistics on the no. and percentage of refunds issued (office-wise)that are issued within one year of receipt of Returns, and even this would be a revealing figure!