IT refunds in Gujarat at Rs 900 crore

The Income Tax department has made refunds worth about Rs 900 crore in Gujarat in the current fiscal. This is significant considering that the department collects revenues worth around Rs 4000 crore from the state.

Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Ahmedabad, N K Jain said here on Friday that the department is in the process of implementing a system where IT refunds will directly get credited into the bank accounts of the assessee.

"We are in the process of introducing an electronic clearing system for refunds. This will not only reduce delays in procedures of the department, but the assessee will also be saved the task of depositing refund orders into banks," Jain said.

Responding to complaints from several assessees that refund orders were being blocked in the month of March, Jain said: "Yes, there is still some gap in refunding orders. We are still not in a position to issue IT refund orders within ten days or so, but that issue will be sorted out." He assured that the department was not holding back refunds in March, but this was because of an increased load of work in the month.

Jain felt that there is a need for tax payers to voluntarily comply with IT payment. "Under the new liberalisation era, tax collections in the form of customs and central excise are bound to decrease. Under such circumstances, the union government is looking to the IT department as the main revenue source. In fact, the more tax people will pay, the lower will be the tax rate," he said.

On why the grievance redressal cell of the IT department here was almost non functional, Jain stated that there are around 1,100 complaints pending with the cell, but about 400 of these are outdated, some as old as 15 years.

"With computerisation, the complaints have been bifurcated according to commissionarates and a monthly review of the complaints is being done. The additional commissioner of IT is supervising this cell," he said.

Replying to another complaint on delay in issuance of permanent identification numbers (PAN), Jain said the new system being implemented is in the process of stabilisation.