Viewpoint 1 – Income Tax Mission Mode Project

Viewpoint 1 – Income Tax Mission Mode Project

(Ref: F.No. RTI/01/2009-10/3845 )

The Income Tax Mission Mode is spearheaded by the Directorate of Income Tax (Systems) under the leadership of Director General (Systems) as the Mission Leader. The project aims at enabling the Tax payer to meet their normal tax obligations in a convenient manner without visiting the income tax office. The project has already achieved the following landmark achievements:

1.Availability of taxpayer information on tax laws, rules, circulars, notifications etc ; Procedures for PAN, TAN,eTDS returns, AIR and BCTT;
2.All statutory and non statutory forms are available online (including return forms, challan forms, PAN/ TAN application forms)
3.PAN / TAN applications can be submitted online
4.Online Tax Calculator
5.Online return preparation software for annual tax returns ; Online return preparation utility for TDS returns along with Return validation utility
6.Tax can be paid online through select banks if the taxpayer has net banking facility
7.Website and Aaykar Sampark Kendra (ASK) based tracking of status of application of PAN/ TAN
8.Website and Aaykar Sampark Kendra (ASK) based verification of PAN/ TAN
9.TAN can be searched on the basis of category of deductors / State / Name
10.Online facility of downloading Challans 280/281/282 and 283 for payment of taxes
11.Online verification of PAN numbers submitted by third parties with bulk verification facility for banks
12.Directory of TIN facilitation centres; Deductor's manual to help preparation of eTDS returns ; Status of TDS return filed by deductors and facilities for deductor / deductee on TIN website
13.Compulsory online filing of returns of corporate assesses covered under 44AB
14.E-filing through authorized intermediary and direct e-filing under digital signature
15.Challan status enquiry to enable taxpayer check if the tax paid is properly accounted to their number.
16.Tracing the status of return and refunds online through PAN numbers (logging through onee's PAN and assessment year)
17.Online information on Tax laws, rules, notifications, forms, data structures etc related to Annual Information Return (AIR)
18.Online AIR return filing facility
19.Online filing of grievances and redressal

The Income Tax MMP is focused more on online delivery of services and establishing Ayakar Sewa Kendras (front end) and not the back end part. The following are para wise observations:

1.Even though the Department of Revenue has put all tax laws, rules, circulars, notifications etc online a greater effort is required to resolve the ambiguity in tax laws and procedures. The complex laws and procedures have led to litigations, encouraged large-scale evasion and therefore need to be simplified. The Department has also attempted a direct tax code bill as available on http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/archive/Direct_Taxes_Code_Bill_13082009.pdf but it is also a 256 page long document which may be beyond the comprehension of common man. The Income tax is not only subject to the Income Tax Act and Rules but also to various circulars brought by Department of Revenue. The same is also affected by the Finance Act every year.
2.The forms as available on the website has its on set of issues. Firstly there is no clarity amongst the multiplicity of forms / challans. The forms are available at the following links : http://law.incometaxindia.gov.in/TaxmannDit/DisplayPage/formspg.aspx ; http://law.incometaxindia.gov.in/TaxmannDit/DisplayPage/formspg.aspx?smd=3 (under international taxation – but no clarity as to difference in international forms or not) Then forms are also available under the download section http://incometaxindia.gov.in/download_all.asp and http://incometaxindia.gov.in/allforms.asp . Further the most important forms like the New Income – Tax Returns forms (for assessment year 2009-10 ; 2008-2009) etc are not opening http://law.incometaxindia.gov.in/DITTaxmann/IncomeTaxRules/pdf/itr62Form1-8(New).pdf
3.The credit card payment on the UTISL website for applying for a PAN card was not working ( http://www.utitsl.co.in/utitsl/uti/newapp/newpanapplication.jsp ) and it was suggested to pay by DD / Pay order. The whole purpose of submitting an online application form 49A for PAN card was lost there and then. Further the PAN card application in case of individuals required submission of photographs, however there appeared no provision of the same on the website. The online forms for TAN as available on the link https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/tan/servlet/NewTanApp had some restriction on filling which may be chacked.
4.There is no link to the tax calculator on the main page but the link http://law.incometaxindia.gov.in/TaxmannDit/xtras/taxcalc.aspx just calculates the tax liability based on a single mathematical formula when the net income is already mentioned. A complete range of values have to be specified for calculation of net income which are missing.
5.The online return preparation software https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/index.do
is a step forward. The method in both cases, digitally signed documents and non digitally signed documents is easy. However the same offers limited convenience to those who are not internet savvy. They have to take the services of an intermediary for their returns. However knowing the complexities of the return this is the maximum that the Department could have offered in current circumstances. However submission of CD/ floppy for eTDS may help the Department to avoid data entry but has limited utility to the stakeholder. It may be explored if the TDS and income tax returns can be collected at the ASK Cebtres.
6.The online payment of TDS is also a step forward, however only thirty banks are authorized for same. And as per the website only Net Banking facility can be used and use of credit cards has not been explored.
7.Multiple fields are asked in case of tracking of the PAN / TAN. In case of PAN UTITSL asks for information like Application Type, Application Number, Coupon Number, Applicant Name. However a good search facility should track it down on just one field.
8.The know your PAN also requires multiple fields like the First Name, Sir Name, DOB (first level) and Father's Name , Father's Sir Name (second level). Generation of the PAN number after providing multiplicity of fields is a difficult task.
9.The facility to track TAN is quite helpful
10.The challan forms are just the pdf versions of challan forms which have already been highlighted in para (2)
11.A b2b service available to limited few and therefore no feedback.
12.The link http://tin.nsdl.com/Downloads.asp is not working, however the link in FAQ section is http://tin.nsdl.com is working. The directory of TIN facilitation centres is avaailable online.However the website was not so helpful from information prospective as the deductor's manual to help preparation of eTDS returns was not traceble; Though the filing and tracking of application for TAN/ PAN; filing of eTDS was available the author could not find the ways and mean to know the status of TDS return filed by deductors and facilities for deductor / deductee on TIN website
13.Though the compulsory online filing of returns of corporate assesses covered under 44AB is mentioned however the faacilitation provided to them by the Department are not available.
14.E-filing through authorized intermediary and direct e-filing under digital signature
15.The link for the challan status enquiry to enable taxpayer check if the tax paid is properly accounted to their number was not easily traceable at the link http://www.tin-nsdl.com/sitemap.asp . It appears that the link https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/oltas/servlet/QueryTaxpayer is working for same.
16.The links to tracing the status of return and refunds online through PAN numbers (logging through one's PAN and assessment year) were not available on the websites (or were not easily traceable) of Income Tax Department. However with great effort a link was traced to http://tin.nsdl.com/panregistration_viewtax.asp
17.The Online information on Tax laws, rules, notifications, forms, data structures etc related to Annual Information Return (AIR) has already been discussed in para (2) and is a repeated achievement.
18.Online AIR return filing facility was available at http://tin.nsdl.com/stepstoe-AIR.asp ; however the same could not be verified
19.Online filing of grievances and redressal is a common phenomenon adopted by all Departments and may not be considered an e-Governance effort anymore.


The Income Tax Department with facilitation of TAN, PAN, AIR and online returns has claimed that the Income Tax Mission Mode Project has completed. Even DIT and private consultants have given a stamp of approval and the project has won many awards. But the fact remains that there are multiple errors that still exist in the delivery of these services. It is not know that a certificate of completion was taken from STQC or not. There are no efforts made to ensure that a the Law, Rules and procedures are simpled. The Department also have multiple circulars released every year which have a bearing on the income tax. Above that the Finance Act every year makes the process more complex. The Income Tax MMP has not made any efforts to reduce corruption and bring in transparency. The MMP has lead to no effort to reduce corruption in the Department.

The only difference the MMP is able to create is that the documents which were filed in paper form in past are filed in digital format. There is no adequate information and accounting systems introduced to verify those records and the data collected in a digital form is not even being converted to information. The MMP has made no effort to bring in the large informal sector into its ambit and to break the culture of non compliance. Even after the implementation of the project the tax administration system has remained ineffective.

No effort has been made to conceptualized an integrated approach by linking various projects like the
Central Excise and Customs , Banking, MCA21, Unique ID, Commercial Taxes, Pensions which could have made the system more fool proof. Even the BPR study also gives ornamental suggestion in form of customer facilitation through Facilitation Centers, ATMs, SMS, Call Centers etc. The suggestions were strange to the extent it mentioned about facilities like waiting lounge, drinking water, hygienic toilet, etc in ITD rather than substantial suggestions. The only important suggestion appears to be of segregation of Bulk Operations Division (BOD),( handling routine and repetitive activities not requiring the exercise of discretion in individual cases) and a Compliance Operations Division (COD)
( to carry out specialized activities for a smaller number of taxpayers) (BPR synopsis -
http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/BPR.html#7 )

However the author believes that in order for effective implementation of the MMP in Income Tax Department the functioning of the various Director Generals / Members (CBDT) need to be integrated. These include:
Director General of Income Tax (Administration)
Directorate of Income Tax (PR,PP &OL)
Directorate of Income Tax (Inspection & Examination)
Directorate of Income Tax (Audit)
Directorate of Income Tax (Recovery)
Directorate of Income Tax (TDS)
Director General of Income Tax (Systems)
Directorate of Income Tax (Systems)
Directorate of Income Tax (Organisation & Management Services)
Directorate of Income Tax (Infrastructure)
Directorates of Income Tax (Vigilance)
Director General of Income Tax (Training)
Director General of Income Tax (Legal & Research)
Director General of Income Tax (Business Process Director
Director General of Income Tax (Intelligence)
Director General of Income Tax (Investigation)
Director General of Income Tax (Exemptions)
Director General of Income Tax (International Taxation)

Efforts are required to create an intelligent system for sharing of information amongst the Members (CBDT), DGITs, Directors, Additional/ Joint/ Deputy/ Assistant Directors of Income Tax, the Tax Recovery Officers (TRO) and Accessing Officers. Efforts are also required for sharing of information amongst the different Directorates. A true Mission Mode Project in Income Tax Department will be study of the above BPR of all directorates and then developing a software for same. The current level of completion of MMP is nothing but a myth. Each directorate should be able to share information with the other directorate in a digital format and increase the income tax collection and possible evasion. It is suggested that a complete BPR study may be constituted for the same.


(With thanks to Sh. Neeraj Kumar, CPIO & Joint Director of Income Tax for providing current status of the project)