Make all officers to file returns
RETURN filing is such a torture that many an assessee would rather close business than go through the punishment of filing returns. In fact, many of the officers of the Department will not be able to file the returns. Is it not grossly unfair to ask the assessees to file a return which you yourself cannot do? No assessee should be made to file a return that an officer cannot file.
Every officer of the Department from Inspector to Chairman should be mandatorily made to file at least one return a month on behalf of an assessee. Maybe even the Minister should file a couple of returns in a year.
Yesterday, delivering the YB Chavan Memorial lecture, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said that every senior official in the government should live one day like a common man without any assistants, and try to get one routine task done, so that they get a better sense of the scale of changes which are required in the country.
He said,
Most officials realise how complex the system is only after retirement, and an exercise like this will give them a much better sense of the changes required.
A lot of officials, including myself, learn the difficulties of working in India as an 'aamaadmi' only once we leave office, lose the assistant, the assistant to the assistant, and the assistant to the assistant's assistant. Post retirement, and I have seen this with all the people I know, they realise the system is much harder to deal with.
Rajan's suggestions are most appropriate for the tax officials.