e_Filing software for ITR 1/2/3/4 available now. eFiling will commence shortly.

Softwares for efiling for the AY 2009-10 is available now. ITR 1/2/3/4 is ready now. For Firms and Comapanies, the softwares are being ready and will be made available shortly.

The electronic submission of returns has not commenced yet and likely to be enabled very shortly.

There are few changes regarding Registrations and uploading. We are providing necessary informations regarding changes below.

1. New Users can register their Digital Certificate during registration process

2. During Registration and Forgot Password, Captcha Image needs to be entered by the user for verification. If the image is not clear for the user, they can refresh and get a new image

3. After successful registration of user, User Activation URL sent through Email and user account gets activated only after the user clicks on the activation URL and login

4. User needs to activate his/her account within 10 days of time period. After that the user account gets expired and the user needs to re-register with the EFiling application

5. Secret Question and Answer has been added as part of Registration for more security

6. Existing users, can update their Secret Question and Answer after the Login.

7. Upload with the digital certificate has been mandated to register/update the digital certificate before upload. If the user wants to upload with the digital certificate, the user needs to go to My Account Menu -> Update Digital Certificate page

8. My Account Menu have an addition of the followings:

1. Update Digital Certificate

2. Update Secret Question and Answer

9. Password – Strength & confirmation indicator provided for the registration, change password, forgot password functionalities

10. During XML file upload any error with the xml file will be displayed to the user at one shot. More than 5 errors will be given as a ‘.CSV’ file to the user for download

11. After successful upload, the user can download the ITR V / ITR Acknowledgement pdf in the success page itself. ITR V/ ITR Acknowledgement pdf zip needs to be saved in the users’ computer to open the file.

12. Users can download the utilities / schema for all the years

13. E-Filing News scroll over stops the text so that the user can read the full content

13. Know Your Jurisdiction has been moved to Services Menu.

Softwares are available here.

Income tax cadre Review Report 2009

The Cadre review and Restructuring Report for the Income Tax Department has finally come out. We could manage to collect the report by our own source.
Highlights of the reports are:

o Introduction of the Apex Scale and HAG+ Grade in the with 42 post being created in two Apex Scale of Rs. 80,000 (fixed) and 74 posts being created in the HAG + Scale of Rs. 75,500 – 80,000 along with simultaneous abolition of 116 posts in HAG grade (PB-4 plus Grade Pay of Rs. 12,000).

o Status of Administrative Commissioners of Income Tax to be elevated to HAG (PB-4 plus Grade Pay of Rs. 12,000) Higher status for the posts of DIT(Inv.); CIT(Central); DIT(Training); DIT(Vigilance); DIT(Int’l Taxation) [to be redesignated CIT(Int’l Taxation)] as well. 346 posts to be placed in this higher grade.

o No change in the status of other posts.

o Additional posts to be created on functional considerations in other grades as under:-

Sr. No.	Designation	Pay Scale	Additional posts proposed
1	CIT/equivalent	PB-4 + Rs. 10,000	167
2	Addl. CIT/ JCIT/ equivalent	PB-4 + Rs. 8700 PB-3 + Rs. 7600	283
3	Dy. CIT/ Asstt. CIT/ equivalent	PB-3 + Rs. 6600 PB-3 + Rs. 5400	588
4	Reserve	PB-3 + Rs. 5400	760
5	ITO	PB-2 + Rs. 4800 PB-3 + Rs. 5400	1826

Posts in lower grades to be created accordingly by following the prescribed norms of 1 Inspector, 1 TA/STA and ½ DEO/Stenographer for every ITO and 2 Inspectors, 2 TAs/STAs and 1 DEO/Stenographer for every ACIT/DCIT in a Range.

o Ranges to have six assessing officers including 2 ACITs/ DCITs in Central Range and 1 ACIT / DCIT in other Ranges.

o All DGsIT in HAG+ of Rs. 75,500 – 80,000 to be redesignated CCITs

o An additional post of CIT to be created for Budget and expenditure related work.

It is learnt that the Dept. will ask opinion of the service associations before implementing it.

View the full report here.

This report though made known to the service association [ITEF] but they did not make it public and did not place in their website.

This type of tendency of keeping things away from the general members is really surprising. Are they going to deprive the common members again like the 1% incentive scheme, out of which Group C and D employees got nothing and there is no meaningful protest from the Union ?

Please post your comment.

"........Our last circular letter i.e. ITEF/08/2009 has not been placed on the website. It has been e mailed to all of you on our common e mail domain of itefcentral_hq@sify.com whose pass word has already been communicated to all of you. Kindly go through the same and send your considered views to the CHQ on the cadre review proposal immediately to formulate our draft submission for the consideration of the CWC meeting at Daman on 18^th and 19^th June, 2009.

With greetings,

Yours fraternally,

Ashok Salunkhe.

Secretary General"

TDS/TCS Deductors : New provision has been deferred.

The CBDT has deferred it's Notification No. 31/2009 dated 25.03.2009 regarding TDS/TCS payments and filing of eTDS returns. The new provisions will take effect from 1st July 2009. Meanwhile, the dedutors will follow the current provisions of payment and filing.

See the Press Release.

PAN Card is going to be Biometric soon.

Over the next few months, taxpayers will start getting biometric permanent account number cards that capture their fingerprints and facial features, marking the start of an exercise the finance ministry has been talking about for at least three years.

The development has elicited huge response from the country's top information technology companies. At least seven players, including Infosys, HCL, Tata Consultancy Services and its subsidiary CMC, are in the fray to develop a biometric card and the infrastructure that can handle 12 million new users annually.

Others shortlisted for the request-for-proposal stage include Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, ITI and Bharat Electronics.

Some of the players have negotiated tie-ups with other service providers but the details of these were not readily available.

The income tax department is pushing for a biometric card to ensure that an individual does not have more than one PAN.

The move comes at a time when the government is also working on a project for a national identity card, on the lines of the US social security number, and has already allocated Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) for it.

To begin with, the government proposes to issue biometric cards to new applicants and those seeking a re-issue. But over a period of time, old cardholders are also proposed to be enrolled into the new system.

According to documents made available to the bidders, the government intends to capture fingerprints of four fingers of an individual -- two from each hand -- and the facial image, with the eyes clearly visible. After much deliberation, the tax department has dropped plans to capture the image of the iris, a senior official said.

The bidders have also been asked to ensure that the digital image of the application and documents submitted as proof are also captured in some form.

Along with the card, there are plans to spruce up the PAN issuance infrastructure. Bidders have been asked to ensure that they set up points of service for 10 hours a day, six days a week.

A mobile facility that ensures "at-your-doorstep" service has also been planned, officials said. A call centre that works for at least 10 hours a day, six days a week, along with a national helpline number and an online facility have also been proposed.

The tax department also wants the service provider to ensure that new PAN cards are issued within 20 days.

The proposed system is being designed to handle 70 million PAN records and handle 100,000 applications a day.

There is, however, no clarity on who would bear the cost of the card, which at present costs Rs 67.

Source : Business Standard.

New Return Forms for A.Y. 2009-10 Notified

CBDT has notified the ITR forms for the A.Y. 2009-10 (F.Y. 2008-09) vide Notification dated 27th March, 2009.

It will take some time to get the softwares for efiling. The department is working on it and will be released shortly to enable the assessees to download and file their return electronically. However the assessees who are not liable to file their return electronically mandatorily, may download the forms , print it and file their return of income manually right now.

View the Notification and download the form