The Hindu Business Line : I-T Dept expects to boost online returns soon

THE computerisation drive taken up by the Income Tax Department to increase online processing of returns and quick retrieval of records is expected to get a major boost with the proposed use of optical fibre links.

Mr P. C. Sinha, Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (CCIT), Kolkata-1, was speaking to Business Line at the sidelines of an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Eastern Region, here on Tuesday. He said AirTel is now executing the job jointly with IBM India under the supervision of Engineers India.

Work on the all-India link-up of the main I-T offices is expected to be completed by mid-2006.

As for the Bengal zone, it should be over by early 2006, he added.

Pointing out that work on this region is progressing fast, Mr Sinha said the main server routed through a BSNL line will be located in Delhi, with a back-up server in Mumbai and another one in Chennai.

The department is now fully engaged in the business re-engineering process. Electronic processing of I-T refunds is already being done.

Asked on the progress with regard to large taxpayer units, he said a conference of commissioners would first be held here soon, followed by another meet in Delhi for identifying the large corporates that may opt for this facility.

He said the programme is now only in the initial phase and would take some more time to concretise.

Commenting on the collections (both corporate and individual income-tax) performance of the Bengal zone during April-November 2005, Mr Sinha said, against a budgeted target of Rs 7,656 crore (for 2005-06), Rs 3324 crore has been collected, registering an increase of 33 per cent over the year-ago period.

Pointing out that the department is comfortably placed to overhaul the targets, he said the negative growth in personal I-T collections, however, is a matter of concern.

He said steps are being taken to correct the situation. While exemptions still remain, the effective rate of taxation has gone down.

The collection for the said period is placed at Rs 1,048 crore against the Rs 1,095 crore for the corresponding period of 2004-05.

The CCIT informed that the growth rate in advance tax collections would be along expected lines.

Mr Sinha said that while the tax deducted at source collections on an all-India basis have shown a big jump, Bengal has seen an increase of only 10 per cent, perhaps calling for renewed efforts.

On the fringe benefit tax front too, the collections in Bengal have been miniscule compared to the all-India picture, he pointed out.