Taxpayers and professionals have not been able to keep up pace with the IT changes of the IT Department
THERE is a Directorate of Income Tax (TaxPayer Services-II) functioning under the CBDT. The functions of this Directorate include:
(i) Educate taxpayers in respect of E-services being provided to the taxpayers.
(ii) Deal with grievances of taxpayers relating to matters such as processing of returns of income, issue of refunds, demand verification, PAN, TAN, CPC-TDS related grievances.
(iii) Co-ordinate with the Directorates under Pr. DGIT (Systems) including Centralised Processing Centre-ITR and - Centralised Processing Centre -TDS to ensure delivery standards of e-enabled Taxpayer Services.
(iv) Provide taxpayer feedback to the Directorate of Systems for development of new methods of providing services to taxpayers through apps and mobile telephony, SMS alerts etc.
(v) Coordinate with Directorate of Systems for effective functioning of the National Call Centre of the Department (Telephone No, 1961).
(vi) Maintain effective coordination with Directorate of Income Tax (Tax Payer Services-I).
At the field level, Pr. Chief Commissioner of Income Tax of each Region is responsible for provision and monitoring of time bound delivery of taxpayer services, dissemination of information with respect to taxpayer services initiatives being rolled out, holding of camps etc., within the Region.
Now, the Income Tax Department observes that the taxpayers and professionals have not been able to keep up the pace with the changes. As a result, a wide gap has emerged between the initiatives undertaken by the Income Tax Department and acceptance thereof in terms of practices by the stakeholders. The success of the initiatives of e-governance lies on the intensive regular efforts of the Department to bridge up the gap between the technological changes and the usage thereof. Unless people are driven home with the new initiatives in the field of taxpayer services and got used to working therewith, the objectives of e-governance will get defeated.
Therefore, the CBDT has highlighted the need to educate the taxpayers by organizing regular seminars and workshops at each station in India. The workshops/Seminars should comprise of all the stake holders including the Professionals, representatives of ICAI, CII, ASSOCHEM (maybe what they mean is ASSOCHAM), Trade and specific business associations/unions besides the taxpayers. The workshops/Seminars will aim at educating the taxpayers and professionals about E-filing of Returns, Online filing of rectification application, Online filing of TDS returns, single point service centers - Aayakar Seva Kendras, resolution of nagging issues like credit of TDS, mis-match of TDS entries, filing and processing of PAN/TAN Applications, Redressal of Grievances on e-nivaran, use of National Call Centers etc.
In the seminar/workshops the speakers may be from the field, directorate of Systems and directorate of TPS. There may also be volunteers outside the Department who are well conversant with the taxpayer services initiatives being undertaken by the Income Tax Department. But the content and correctness of the speeches/presentations must be checked beforehand by some senior officer of the Department. Such events should be advertised well in advance to optimize the benefits. The field formation is desired to record the proceedings (Audio/Video) of meetings on the electronic devices and send it to the Directorate of Tax Payer Services-II for compilation and analysis.