Five non-corporate charges in five cities have been picked up for the pilot
Five non-corporate charges in five cities have been picked up for the pilot
New Delhi
: The Income Tax Department has started a pilot project of using e-mails for sending notices, getting replies as well as carrying out tax assessments in an attempt to make sure taxpayers don't have to visit I-T offices physically in smaller cases.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has identified non-corporate charges at five locations and 100 initial cases for e-hearing.
-"In order to improve taxpayer services, enhance efficiency and usher in a paperless environment for carrying out assessment proceedings, CBDT has decided to initiate the concept of using e-mail for corresponding with tax payers and sending through e-mails the questionnaires, notice... and getting responses from them using the same medium on a pilot basis,-" a CBDT notice of October 19 said.
Five non-corporate charges in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chennai have been picked up for the pilot. Initially, 100 cases for e-hearing will be identified in each of these charges and the major part of assessment processing will be conducted in an electronic mode.
The move, CBDT said, -"would eliminate the necessity of visiting income-tax offices by taxpayers, particularly in smaller cases, involving limited issues and where taxpayers are able to provide details required by the assessing officer without necessitating his physical presence-". Cases covered under the pilot project would be those, which have been selected for scrutiny on the basis of AIR/CIB information or non-matching with 26AS-data.
AIR is Annual Information Return and CIB is Credit Information Bureau while Form 26AS contains details of tax deducted on behalf of the taxpayer by deductors.
-"Consent of taxpayers should also be obtained in the beginning and cases of only willing taxpayers be considered under the pilot project,-" the order said. I-T officers will use their official e-mail IDs to interact with the taxpayers at the e-mails mentioned in their respective returns of income.
