Increase in filing of IT 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 Taxes, 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 filing date beyond July 31.

Help desks

With 320 employees of the IT department employed to assist the filing process, 40 help desks have been put in place. “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,” he 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 mela-like environment 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 IT 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. “We are looking into that suggestion for next year,” added Arulappa.

DH News Service