Perception of Trade of CBEC:
ON behalf of CBEC, FICCI and KPMG conducted a survey. The objective of the survey was to set priorities for reforming business processes and improving the taxpayers' experience while dealing with Indirect taxes administration. The questionnaire covered the following key business processes: Interaction experience (from interactions with officials of field offices to the Ministry); Dispute resolution; Refund claims; Onsite audit by the department; Electronic taxpayer services; Burden of documentation; Seeking clarifications from CBEC and its field offices.
The recently held conference of Chief Commissioners and Directors General of CBEC was informed that the Taxpayers' Experience Survey has highlighted following key concerns:
(i) That tax payer be treated as Tax-abider instead of a Tax-evader;
(ii) Remove the focus from revenue target approach;
(iii) Clarity should be provided in tax matters;
(iv) Streamlining of instructions / circulars by issue of annual master circulars;
(v) Significant delay in grant of refund claims, rejection of refund claim on trivial grounds; Unwarranted litigation without considering merit of the case;
(vi) Provision for setting aside of Show cause notices by an empowered authority;
(vii) Persistent delay in responding to queries / concerns of taxpayers;
(viii) Need for continuous follow-up for any completion of process;
(ix) Onsite audits being conducted using outdated methodologies;
(x) Lack of customer service approach;
(xi) Huge burden of manual / physical documentation;
(xii) High frequency of transfer without proper handover leaves taxpayers clueless.
It is one month since the conference is over - maybe they will discuss these issues in the next conference too.