The Income-tax department has been making commendable efforts to stream-line the procedures related to filing of Income-tax Returns, assessments and issuance of tax refunds etc. One such effort which we all have been religiously making extensive use of is the E-FILING of Income-tax Returns and TDS Returns etc. Everyone using this facility and who has also been associated with return filing procedure in pre-2006 era would appreciate the huge reduction in the paper work involved and in the red-tapism that the e-filing process has brought in.
Seemingly, it's a government effort to (a) eradicate the interaction between the assessees and the deptt personnel to the minimum in order to curb assessees' harrassment and corruption creeping in at all levels, and (b) streamline the data consolidation and cross verification of transactions carried out by the assessees to curb tax avoidance. Computerisation of processes, indeed, was the need of the hour for the government to achieve the said objectives.
However, apparently, the computerisation process did throw up lot of challenges and temporary issues for all concerned, more particularly for the assessees in the issues related to receipt of their legitimate Income-tax Refund. Most of us who have transited to the E-filing mode have faced huge problems in securing the tax refunds on behalf of our client - assessees since the officers in jurisdictional wards would simply refuse to entertain the cases related to e-filing on the ground that e-filing cases are being dealt with electronically. In some cases, e-filing cases would be delayed, if being entertained at all. One has definitely experienced the running from pillar to post in such cases.
A sigh of relief now comes in with the government addressing this issue seriously and in true spirit. With effect from AY 2009-10, assessments u/s 143(1) are being carried out by CPC, Bangalore and not by the area jurisdictional officers any more. The assessments are being carried out in a fast track mode which can be viewed by the fact that the assessees who filed their Income-tax Returns in the month of March 2010 peratining to AY 2009-10 have already been sent the assessment orders in July 2010. However, the sequence in which the returns have been picked up for assessment cannot be commented upon here. There might still be a huge backlog for the CPC to clear off. Yet, the fact suggests that the assessment process has been kept on a fast track mode.
The said situation is related to cases falling under 143(1). It is still not known what shall be the process in the cases falling under the purview of section 143(3). Looks quite obvious that such cases will be dealt with by the area jurisdictional officers only. But whether the CPC would be instrumental or involved at any stage in the selection criteria for identifying cases for 143(3), it's still a big question mark.
Pursuant to the assessment, the CPC Bangalore shall be issuing the tax refunds. The intimation and requisite details/ advice are being sent by it directly to the State Bank Of India, Mumbai who in turn is sending the refund cheque, by Speedpost, to the assessee at his postal address mentioned on the face of the return filed for the respective AY. The status of the tax refund can be viewed at www.tin-nsdl.com . If the refund cheque has been processed by SBI, Mumbai, the status would reflect the cheque number, speedpost acknowledgment number, date of issuance etc. This would confirm that the refund cheque is in transit and would be received by the respective assessee soon. If the status search doesn't display the aforesaid details, it would suggest that the refund intimation has not yet reached the SBI, Mumbai and still in process at CPC, Bangalore. Some of the departmental officers have mentioned that this process is applicable for tax refunds upto Rs. 10 lacs. Any single tax refund beyond Rs. 10 lacs will still be under the jurisdiction of the area officer and most likely subject to scrutiny assessment.
Clearly, this is a big piece of relief from the usual painful exercise of running after the departmental officers for receipt of our own legitimate excess tax paid to the govt. I guess, it's time when we all should realise the relief and ease arising out of these efforts as we experience this in our day to day practice and should really applaud the commendable job the government is doing to make the system transparent and taxpayer friendly.
P.S. The official notifications/ instructions to departmental officers in this regard could not be tracked. Everything contained above is purely on the basis of my own experience, observations and the interaction with various territorial jurisdictional officers. Any inputs/ modifications in the views mentioned above are most welcome.
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