Online I-T filings likely from April

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is understood to be gearing up banks for a national launch of its online income tax collection from April 1.

According to banking sources, the online facility will offer relief to customers who have to face endless queues to pay taxes.

The project will be initially kick off at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai , Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Kanpur and Lucknow. The facility is aimed at facilitating hassle free tax paying machinery within the system.

As part of the process, while talks are on with all public banks and select new generation private banks for installing the software and training the staff, regular workshops are also being conducted to prepare for any eventuality, sources said.

Under the online system, customers can get instant receipt of their tax payments as against the current system wherein the final take months to come.

As per the proposed new system, the funds will automatically get credited in RBI's Nagpur office while the relevant information will go to National Securities Depositories Ltd ( NSDL) under a inbuilt design called "online tax information net ".

NSDL, from now on will act as data warehouse for all government businesses and in the process will evolve as central database.

The online tax payment has been proposed as one of the major recommendations in the mini budget While the software has been designed by the Central Board of Direct taxes ( CBDT), it will be attached the bank branches for customer to pay his taxes and get an online final receipt of the payments.

Already a pilot run is on and it is likely that the similar collection could be extended to other places as well. The move is part of the RBI's decision to exit retail businesses by handing it over to agency businesses.

It has also given up the distribution of 8 per cent taxable bonds and direct and indirect tax collection for the government.