Timely and proper redressal of public grievances
IN a D.O.Letter to his Principal Chief Commissioners, the CBDT Chairman Mr. Sushil Chandra says:
1. As you are well aware, redressal of public grievances is one of the primary focus areas of the Government and is being monitored at the highest level through the PRAGATI interactions of Hon. Prime Minister. In the recent PRAGATI interaction, Hon'ble Prime Minister directed that all Departments should strive to reduce the grievance redressal time from current 60 days to 30 days.
2. CBDT is one of the 20 Government Departments/Ministries receiving the maximum number of public grievances on the online Public Grievances portal (CPGRAMS). Currently there are 2499 pending grievances.
3. An analysis of these grievances shows that the grievances received by CBDT are largely regarding legacy demands, mismatch of TDS and consequent delay in issue of refunds and issues relating to PAN transfer from one jurisdiction to another whenever the assessee changes his address due to his own specific circumstances.
4. Though some of these grievances arise due to system related issues, in a large number of cases these grievances get generated due to deficient actions of the Assessing Officers.
In order to stop the generation of these grievances at the very source itself, he wants the following steps to be taken in right earnest by all concerned:
i. The Range heads should provide guidance to the Assessing Officers regarding how to properly deal with the issues which give rise to repetitive grievances so as to ensure that the taxpayer is satisfied with the redressal at the AO level itself.
ii. The Range heads should contact the assessee as soon as the grievance is received and should take all necessary steps to redress the grievance.
iii. The CCsIT and PC sIT should also have a monthly outreach programme for hearing out the grievances of public which will not only provide the Department an opportunity to find out the ground realities leading to generation of grievances but will also ensure that administrative as well as systemic reforms are undertaken in a time bound manner for quicker and proper disposal of public grievances. This should be over and above the Wednesday open door meetings for meeting the public without prior appointment as well as the personal monitoring of grievances to find out the quality of disposal of grievances.
He wants all PCCsIT concerned to ensure timely disposal of grievances and send a report on the action taken on the above issues through their Zonal Members by 21st November, 2016 so that a progress report is submitted before the next PRAGATI meeting to be held on the 24th November, 2016.