Income Tax Returns Will Now Take Just 24 Hours; Govt. Will Spend Rs 4200 Cr For Tax Filing Reforms

Income tax return process, which was previously a tedious span of 63 days, will now be processed in one day! Thanks to Union Cabinet and Infosys, who will employ the next generation system for processing Income tax return filing.

The Union Cabinet has sanctioned an amount close to Rs. 4242.97 crore with India’s second largest IT services firm, Infosys after a bidding process. This next generation system will be built and available for the public by 2020, 18 months from now, to be exact. It will probably be introduced after three months of testing too.

The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Piyush Goyal, gave their approval to Infosys to employ Integrated e-filing and Centralized Processing Center 2.0 Project of the Income Tax Department.

The government released an official statement which also clarifies that other than the reduced processing time, there will be numerous other benefits for taxpayers and the department too.

Benefits of The New System

There are numerous facilities that can be availed by the taxpayers, some of which are :

1. Pre-filled ITRs that will boost the level of accuracy along with a system that will correct mistakes swifter than before. Taxpayers will get a pre-filled form in their income tax account that will have their personal details, like their Permanent Account Number (PAN) along with their salary details, interest income and tax deducted at source in the 26AS forms.
2. Integrated contact centers, like helplines to assist or resolves queries or difficulties of taxpayers.
3. An employer/partner accreditation program that will bring about a definite improvement in the services offered to taxpayers.
4. E-filing and CPC projects that will have end-to-end automation of all processes within the Department, with the intention to promote voluntary compliance.

As per sources, the statement says, “The decision will ensure horizontal equity by processing returns filed by all categories of taxpayers across the country in a consistent, uniform, rule driven, identity blind manner. This will assure fairness in tax treatment to every taxpayer irrespective of their status.”

Transparency For The Public

This initiative has been put into place for the taxpayers’ transparency and accountability so that they will not be forced to deal with the Income Tax Department. Also, this will make the public more knowledgeable about the whole process and will get quicker and precise outcomes.

The old system, CPC – ITR 1.0 will be granted an extension and a budget of Rs. 1450 crores for the fiscal year 2018-19 till the new system is introduced.

Is the Government putting their heads together for a better India? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section!

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