Every district to have I-T office by 2013

Every district in the country will have at least one Income Tax office once the ambitious cadre restructuring of the department is implemented by the end of this year.
The proposal was discussed at length and approved at a recent meeting of top I-T and Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) officials as they sat down to plan the rollout of the recent government decision which sanctioned a large-scale cadre restructuring of the department and created 20,751 posts, in various ranks, in the I-T department.
The CBDT, the apex policy making body of the tax department, has put its stamp of approval on the decision.

"The effort will be to create an I-T office in every district of India. This would not only reduce the hardship of taxpayers residing in mofussil and small towns but also widen the tax base bringing in more revenue to the government kitty," a top official privy to the development said.
The department has also decided to implement the big- ticket restructuring proposal by the end of this year, the official said.
At present, only metro, semi-metro cities and few towns have I-T offices while a number of districts have no such office and taxpayers have to go to the nearest city or neighbouring district to perform tax related works.

The CBDT had recently called all the top officials heading I-T units across the country here to finalise the road ahead in this regard.

According to the new blueprint of the I-T in this regard, the number of assessment units of the department would be "increased by 1,080 from 3,420 to 4,500 for strengthening the tax administration".
This step is expected to "bring additional revenue of Rs 25,756.04 crore per annum against an expenditure of Rs 449.71 crore per annum", the new blueprint says.
"The primary objective of the strengthening/restructuring exercise (of the I-T department) is to improve the efficiency of the I-T department, maximise revenue collection and provide better services to the taxpayers, apart from improving career prospects of the employees," the blueprint, also called the vision document, says.