JOIN US15 per cent increase in filing of income tax returns
What stands out this year is the amazing response the arrangements made at Palace Grounds by the I-T department has been receiving from the public, with the feedback board installed there overflowing with congratulatory responses.
With just a day remaining to file returns, the 90 counters were flooded with people but the time taken to file returns ranged between just two minutes to a maximum of ten minutes, inclusive of the time taken to stand in the queue.
Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, P Arulappa, told Deccan Herald that four lakh paper returns were expected to be filed this year and two lakh e-returns.
“A total of 3.3 lakh paper returns were filed by July 29 and 27,000 more paper returns were filed by 3 pm on Thursday,” he said. Details on e-filing were yet to be compiled. The Additional Commissioner ruled out extending the last date for filing the IT retuns beyond July 31.
Help desks
As many as 40 help desks have been put in place with 320 employees of the IT department assisting the filing process.
“While the help desks opened up the previous year were used to direct the public to specific counters, the staff at the desks are teaching many people to file the returns this time. This would help them do it on their own the next time,” Arulappa said.
Around 40,000 returns have been filed on an average here since the process began on July 16. There have been a much higher number of footfalls though with many families just walking in to have a feel of the mela-like environment prevailing there.
Kudos
The department has been receiving tremendous positive feedback for the arrangements. Some of the comments posted on the feedback board run like this: ‘Never expected such great arrangements from a government department’, ‘The Income Tax department can be called as tax-friendly department,’ ‘Enjoyable experience with staff being really helpful’, ‘Amazing speed’, ‘Incredible experience.’
A suggestion reiterated by those filing returns was that there must be more venues spread across the City to file returns and not just this one place. “We are looking into that suggestion for next year,” added Arulappa.