IT IN IT

By Vijay Kumar

Or Information Technology in Income Tax :-

“Comprehensive Computerisation in the Income Tax Department which was initiated in year 1994-95 is an ongoing project. The creation of a nationwide network is one of its components. The Department has made considerable progress, inter-alia, in the allotment of permanent account number (PAN), tax accounting, processing of returns, filing of TDS returns and annual information returns (AIR). One of the recent successful initiatives has been compulsory electronic filing of return by corporate taxpayers.

As regards networking, initially, 60 cities of the country were networked on leased line basis technology. Subsequent to this initiative, it was decided to establish a single national data base whereby other 450 cities would also be put on the network. For this purpose, Internet Protocol based Virtual Private Network (IP-VPN) technology was adopted and a contract was entered with M/s BhartiAirtel Ltd. on 28.10.2005 for connecting 745 buildings of the Income Tax Department located in 510 cities (including 60 cities which were earlier networked on leased line basis). 219 buildings in 60 cities have already been networked under the new system. Another 43 cities would be on network by 31st December, 2006. More cities would also be on network in the coming months.

For the purpose of networking, Income Tax Department, has so far paid a sum of Rs. 19.83 crores to M/s BhartiAirtel Ltd. out of total sum of Rs. 240 crores (excluding Service Tax) to be paid over a period of five years).”

This was informed to the RajyaSabha yesterday by S.S. Palanimanickam, Minister of State for Finance.