Budget boost to New Pension Scheme !

Tax concessions announced by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee have given a boost to the new pension system (NPS) with the number of subscribers rising to over 1,100 against 300 prior to the Budget.

"There has been a quantum jump in the number of subscribers after the Budget announcement. The number subscribers has increased to more than 1,100 from 200-300 prior to the Budget," a PFRDA official said.

The official also said that some public sector enterprises have shown interest in joining the NPS, which was opened to all citizens from May 1 this year.

"One or two public sector entities have approached us and they want their corpus to be managed by the NPS. However, discussions are at the preliminary stages and it would take a month or so for some clarity on the issue," the official added.

Earlier, the Indian Banks' Association has shown interest in the NPS for new bank recruits. Though no concrete decision has been taken so far.

In the Budget tabled in Parliament, the government said that self-employed persons subscribing to the NPS would be subjected to tax only at the time of withdrawal. Other subscribers are already under this kind of tax treatment.

The official added that the NPS has mopped up about Rs 1.2 crore till date.

The Budget also proposed to exempt the income of the pension trust from income tax and also the donor of dividend to the trust from dividend distribution tax.

It also said pension trusts will not have to pay Securities Transaction Tax (STT) if they invest in the securities market.

It also said the interim pension regulator will get Rs 8 crore to run an advertising campaign to familiarise people about the scheme.

Source : The Hindu/PTI

I-T department needs 9,000 more people in five years: CBDT report

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) says it is badly short-staffed. Conservative estimates by a recent report of the special CBDT committee, sent to the government, has recommended that the income tax (I-T) department needs to recruit at least 8,965 officials within the next five years for smooth functioning. Their annual cost: Rs 150 crore.

The 8,965 officials include an estimate for an extra 760 sanctioned personnel in the Indian Revenue Service (IRS).

Apart from this, the department would have to create 42 posts of Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Principal CCITs), 74 CCITs, 116 Senior CCITs and Deputy CITs. “This would have to been done through simultaneous abolition of posts in other grades,” said the report.

However, these are just conservative estimates. The actual requirement of skilled manpower is much more, if the restructuring is done on the basis of three models presented by the report.

The department would require 61,000 additional officers and staff in the tax department if recruitment is done on the bases of ‘Revenue Collection Approach’, over 50,000 people under the ‘Expected Tax Payers Approach’ and nearly 15,000 people under the ‘Workload Management Approach’.

Additional staff would also be required for intelligence and investigation.

However, to limit the cost burden on the state exchequer, the report suggested a conservative way by giving additional responsibilities and suitably upgrading posts in the higher supervisory grades. This also aims to address the existing anomaly in the IRS cadre, where no posts exist in the upper two grades of Higher Administrative Grade and Apex Scale.

The CBDT, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, is the cadre controlling authority for IRS (Income Tax) officers. Ideally, the cadre structure of each Group-A central service should be reviewed once in every five years, but there have been only four such reviews of IRS officials in the past three decades.

“It is an irony that despite being the highest source of revenue generation for government, lack of manpower and stagnation has plagued the tax department. The cost of tax collection, at 49 paise for every Rs 100 tax, is the lowest in the world. And it is only because the department is shockingly low on manpower,” said a senior CBDT official.

The official also added that adequate manpower could help reduce the tax burden on citizens by scaling-up revenue collection.

Quoting an earlier study by Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, the report stated that the potential tax loss in the country was over 50 percent of the tax actually collected during 2007-08, as Rs 8,58,264 crore are not accounted.

Consequently, there was a tax gap of approximately Rs 1,71,653 crore (assuming taxation at the median rate of 20 percent). ‘Black’ money amounted to over 18 percent in the economy and the department’s ability to curb tax evasion is correlated to manpower available for investigation, intelligence, assessment and other departmental work, goes the argument.

The report also said that Interpol had placed the size of hawala transactions in India at 40 percent of the country’s GDP.

Moreover, the pressure on the department had increased substantially with the rising challenge of tackling complex issues relating to taxation of e-commerce, mergers and acquisitions, special economic zones, international movement of capital, off-shore transactions and so on.

Many Assessing Officers (AOs) move their files without adequate diligence, as the workload is high. The report warned that if the number of Aos remained unchanged, the number of assessees per AO annually would increase to 11,490 and the scrutiny workload would increase to 230 by the end of 2013. An AO can handle a maximum of 150 scrutiny files in a year.

Assuming the historical growth rate between 2001-2002 and 2007-2008, the number of taxpayers is expected to grow 1.28 times to over 43 million in 2013-2014. Similarly, revenue, which had grown 4.55 times from Rs 69,198 crore in 2001-2002 to Rs 3,14,468 crore in 2007-2008, is expected rise to Rs 14,30,829 crore in 2013-2014.

At present there are over 33.6 crore registered tax payers in the country, roughly 3 percent of the population.

Source : Business Standard.

Income Tax dept. Exam in new syllabus this year. Union to agitate.

Directorate of Income-tax (IT) has issued notification dt. 10.07.09 for 2009 Departmental Examn. for ITOs/ITIs/MS alongwith new DE Rules and new Syllabus for all three cadres. The 2009 ITO/ITI Examn. would be held according to the new Rules and new Syllabus where MS Examn. would be held according to the 1998 Rules and corresponding syllabus. For MS Examn., the new rules would be effective from 2010 Examn. onwards.


See here for details.

"` Mass Dharna on 14^th July, 2009

On the issue of the Departmental Examination, the ITEF leadership met the DIT(E) and demanded that Examination-2009 should be held under the old Rules and the new Rules should be introduced only from next year and in consultation with the ITEF. As there was no positive response from the DIT(E) we met the Member (P) who assured us to discuss the issue with the DG(Admn.). However, we were later informed over the telephone about their intention to proceed with the New Examination Rules without taking our suggestions/objections into consideration, from 2009 itself.

In the light of the above development we are of the considered opinion that only a strong trade union action will force the authorities to come to the negotiating table for a fruitful discussion on the issue.

It has therefore been decided to include this as one of the items of our Charter of demands for the ensuing agitational programme. We call upon all our Circles to ensure massive participation in the Dharna programme as per the decision of the CWC, which is scheduled for 14^th July,2009 before all CCIT/CIT offices and make it a tremendous success.

DEMANDS

(I) Assigning grade pay of Rs. 4600 as per Government of India notification to Inspectors, Private Secretaries and Administrative officers and Rs. 1800 to all Group D employees;

(ii) All employees are provided with mobile phone facility out of the infrastructure fund;

(iii) No outsourcing of any departmental functions, especially the return processing, as per the recommendations of the BPR report;

(iv) The BPR should not be acted upon without reaching an agreement with the ITEF

(v) All Group C employees be provided with desktop computers to facilitate and speed up the functions entrusted to them immediately.

(vi) Hold Deptl. Examination-2009 under old Rules and implement the new Rules from next year in consultation with ITEF."

---------- from ITEF Circular Dated 1st July 2009.

"A telegram may also be sent to the Chairman CBDT on the same day in the following format :

"KINDLY INTERVENE TO HOLD THE EXAM-2009 UNDER THE OLD SYLLABUS AND TO FINALISE THE DRAFT NEW EXAM RULES IN CONSULTATION WITH ITEF."

SMS BASED SERVICE FOR CHALLAN STATUS QUERY INTODUCED

Tax Information Network (TIN) hosted by National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) on behalf of Income Tax Department (ITD) gives you a facility to verify whether the banks have correctly uploaded the details of your tax deposit to ITD through SMS.



SMS based verification

The procedure for availing this facility is as under:

1. Send an SMS to 575758 with a message containing the word CSI followed by a space and CIN provided by the respective Bank at the time of making the Direct tax payment and the amount.

2. Challan Identification Number (CIN) consists of BSR Code of Collecting Branch (seven digit), Challan Tender Date (DDMMYYYY) and Challan Serial No (length less than or equal to 5 digit).

3. The amount is an optional field. If you provide the amount in the SMS you would get the confirmation whether the amount uploaded by bank matches with the amount paid by you.

4. Each of BSR code, Tender date, the challan serial number and amount should be separated by commas

For e.g., if the tax payer input CSI 0510001,11032009,5,5000 where in

0510001 is the BSR code of the collecting branch,

11032009 is the Challan tender date,

5 is the Challan serial number and

5000 is the amount paid by the taxpayer.

The tax payer will get the information against which TAN/PAN the payment has been accounted with the confirmation whether amount entered is matched or not.

(This is an illustrative CIN, actual CIN should be provided in the SMS).



There will be special charges for these SMS. These charges may vary from one mobile service-provider to another. The charge structure can be obtained from the concerned service-provider.



Online Challan Status Inquiry

You can also get the status of your CIN from www.tin-nsdl.com under the section Challan Status Inquiry.

Salient Features of Budget 2009-10 regarding Income Tax

I propose to raise by Rs 10,000 the exemption limit for women on income tax. For all others, Rs 10,000 up from Rs 1,50,000, says Mukherjee.
Personal income tax exemption limit for senior citizens raised by Rs 15,000.
No change in Corporate Tax.
Ten per cent surcharge on personal income tax removed.
FRINGE BENEFIT TAX ABOLISHED.
Direct Tax code to be released in 45 days along with discussion paper.
FBT ABOLISHED
IT returns to be made simpler, says Mukherjee.
Saral Form II to be reintroduced, says FM. In 4 years, filing tax returns online to be made easier.
Minimum Alternate Tax on book profits increased to 15 per cent from 10 per cent.

Tax Rate for the Financial Year 2009-10 as per budget proposal.

For Males

For Financial Year 2009-10

Taxable Annual Income Slab (In Rs.)

Tax Rate (In %)

Upto Rs. 1,60,000/-

Nil

Rs. 1,56,001/- to Rs. 3,00,000/-

10%

Rs. 3,00,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000

20%

Above Rs. 5,00,000/-

30%

For Females

For Financial YearYear 2009-10

Taxable Annual Income Slab (In Rs.)

Tax Rate (In %)

Upto Rs. 1,90,000/-

Nil

Rs. 1,90,001/- to Rs. 3,00,000/-

10%

Rs. 3,00,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000/-

20%

Above Rs. 5,00,000/-

30%

For Senior Citizen

For Financial YearYear 2009-10

Taxable Annual Income Slab (In Rs.)

Tax Rate (In %)

Upto Rs. 2,40,000/-

Nil

Rs. 2,40,001/- to Rs. 3,00,000/-

10%

Rs. 3,00,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000

20%

Above Rs. 5,00,000/-

30%

The Surcharge on Individual Income Tax has been abolished.

UTN not mendatory for filing it returns, TDS/TCS returns may be filed as per present procedure.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes have further decided that the Notification No. 31 of 2009 dated 25.3.2009 amending or substituting Rules 30, 31, 31A and 31AA of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 shall be kept in abeyance for the time being.

Taxpayers filing their income tax returns for assessment year (AY) 2009-10, or any other earlier AY, may continue to file their returns without mentioning the Unique Transaction Number (UTN) as required under the said Notification. The filing of such returns shall be treated as valid and in compliance to the requirements under section 139 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Further, the date from which the Notification No. 31 / 2009 shall become applicable on tax deducted at source (TDS) or tax collected at source (TCS) and deposited during the current financial year shall be notified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes subsequently.

All deductors / collectors of TDS / TCS may continue to deposit their TDS / TCS and file their quarterly TDS / TCS returns as per procedure existing prior to issuance of Notification No.31 / 2009 dated 25.3.2009.

View the Press Release.

TDS rates may be recast

The government is considering a proposal to streamline rates applicable for tax deducted at source (TDS).

This follows a recommendation from the income tax (I-T) department that TDS rates should be structured in three slabs of between one and five per cent for any stream of income.

TDS is final tax payable by an assessee receiving any income as salary, contract fee or dues. It is deducted by the taxpayer while paying the dues to the assessee.

At present, there are multiple tax rates for TDS starting from one per cent to over 30 per cent.

Also, some rates are specified in individual sections that deal with the tax treatment of a particular income and others are included in separate schedules, making TDS payments difficult to monitor.

Time and manpower are also wasted as a result of the multiplicity of rates, the I-T department has argued, so streamlining would make monitoring easier and less time-consuming.

TDS, however, has emerged as an important source of revenue, contributing almost 33 per cent to tax collections. To compensate for the revenue loss from streamlining rates, the I-T department has suggested bringing more income streams under the TDS ambit.

For instance, the department is considering bringing reinsurance commission received from insurance firms under the TDS umbrella, as also rental income paid for vessels of shipping companies that are chartered.

The latter, however, is subject to a Bombay High Court ruling that TDS was not applicable for ships, transport vehicles and freight or charter hire payments.

Source : Business Standard.

New Pension Scheme may get Tax benefits in the budget.

With the new pension system attracting lukewarm response from citizens, interim regulator PFRDA expressed hope that the Budget would provide tax exemption to individuals at the time of entry to encourage them to opt for the scheme.
However, the government might take some more time to provide tax benefits for those opting for NPS at the time of withdrawal, a senior Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) official told PTI.

"Exit stage may take a longer time for examination, but at entry stage (of NPS) we expect to come in the next budget," he said. The regulator has sought tax exemption for individual subscribers at all stages of the pension scheme-- contributions, returns and withdrawal-- in line with other provident fund schemes.

However, there is no notification yet on entry-stage exemption, the official added.

PFRDA further said that the tax exemption issue at entry stage is under the active consideration of the government and expects the Budget to come out with some clarifications on the issue and that will give boost to the NPS.

The NPS was extended to all citizens from May one this year, but evoked lukewarm response with only 400 persons opening pension accounts so far.

"May be with the budget certain clarification will come on the nature of investment in this particular scheme. Once those clarifications come, probably we will get more subsriber joining us," he added.

While contribution, returns and withdrawals under Public Provident Fund (PPF), Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and General Provident Fund (GPF) are exempted from tax, in case of the New Pension System (NPS), these tax benefits are not provided to individual subscribers.

For organisations, tax is exempted at the entry and return stage.

Besides, the PFRDA has also asked the government to bear the cost of maintaining accounts of policy holders under the New Pension System, a move that will further encourage people to opt for the scheme.

Source : business Standard.

How to open the ITR V and what is the document open password ?

The ITR Vs generated by the systems are password protected now for increased security level for the benefit of the taxpayers.

Please note that you will receive your ITRV/ITR ACK PDF file in a zip format. Please note that the ITRV/ITR ACK PDF document is password protected to ensure it is accessed by the appropriate user. The password is a combination of the pan(in lower case) and the date of birth in the format ddmmyyyy. For example, 1) if the pan is AAAAA0000A and the date of birth is 10-Jan-2008, then the password will be aaaaa0000a10012008 Please note that you will need Adobe Acrobat reader to open the password protected PDF file.

ITR V s to be sent to Bangalore now. After transmitting your return data electronically, You will have to sent the signed copy of ITR V to Income Tax Department , CPC, Post Box No - 1, Electronic City Post Office. Bangalore - 560100, Karnataka within thirty days.

No Form ITR-V shall be received in any other office of the Income-tax Department or in any other manner.

Please remember to update your correct email id/phone no. etc because the Dept. is adopting modern technologies of communication and why not take advantages of that ?

The days of loitering on the corridors of the Income Tax offices are coming to an end soon.

Efiling for A.Y. 2009-10 enabled for ITR 1/2/3/4, ITR 'V' s to be submitted to Bangalore.

E-Filing for AY 2009-10 has been enabled for ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3, ITR-4 forms.

Please furnish the Form ITR-V to the Income-tax Department by mailing it to Income Tax Department , CPC, Post Box No - 1, Electronic City Post Office, Bangalore - 560100, Karnataka within thirty days after the date of transmitting the data electronically. No Form ITR-V shall be received in any other office of the Income-tax Department or in any other manner.


View the Dept. Circular.
Efiling for ITR-5, ITR-6, ITR-8 forms will be enabled shortly.

Direct tax collections register 8.33% growth during 2008-09

As per available figures, net direct tax collection during the fiscal 2008-09 stands at Rs.338,212 crore, up from Rs.312,202 crore during 2007-08, registering a growth of 8.33 percent. Growth in Corporate Taxes was 10.84 percent (Rs.213,823 crore as against Rs.192,911 crore), while Personal Income Tax (including FBT, STT and BCTT) grew at 4.26 percent (Rs.123,967 crore as against Rs.118,904 crore). Growth in Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) was 12.38 percent (Rs.7,997 crore as against Rs.7,116 crore). Securities Transaction Tax (STT), however, declined by 36.95 percent (Rs.5,408 crore as against Rs.8,577 crore).

Despite economic slow-down and substantial relief to non-corporate taxpayers, direct tax collections exceeded the previous year’s collection by about Rs.26,000 crore; Corporate tax deducted at source (TDS) registered a growth of 35.4 percent (Rs.61,683 crore against Rs.45,450 crore last year); PIT TDS registered a growth of 16.3 percent (Rs.68,786 crore against Rs.59,145 crore last year); and Central Government TDS registered a growth of 65.39 percent (Rs.3,364 crore against Rs.2,034 crore last year). Taxes collected include an all time high additional tax amounting to Rs.31,242 crore collected out of tax demand raised by the Income Tax department. This amount consists of tax arrears of Rs.10,016 crore and current tax of Rs.21,226 crore.

Collection of direct taxes has more than tripled from Rs.1,05,088 crore in 2003-04 to Rs.3,38,212 crore in 2008-09 at an average annual growth of 26.75 percent against an average annual growth rate of 18.86 percent between 1990-91 to 2001-02. Direct tax as percentage of GDP stands at 6.23 percent, a marginal decline from 6.61 percent achieved during 2007-08. However, direct tax to GDP ratio has increased from 3.81 percent in 2003-04 to 6.23 percent in 2008-09 as compared to increase from 2.10 percent in 1990-91 to 3.03 percent in 2001-02, contributing over 55 percent of central tax revenues. The cost of collection, which increased to 0.66 percent during 2008-09 from 0.54 percent during 2007-08, still remains one of the lowest in the world.

Source : PIB Press Release.

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

Notification on TDS and TCS

The Board has amended the rules relating to Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) and Tax Collected at Source (TCS) vide Notification No. S.O.858 (E) dated 25th March 2009. 

In this context, taxpayers are informed that the new Form 17 (the challan for payment of TDS and TCS) is applicable only for payment of tax deducted or collected at source on or after 1st April 2009. Therefore, in respect of any TDS or TCS made before the 1st April, 2009, the payment will continue to be made to the credit of the Central Government by using the challan in Form No. 281 (i.e. the old challan form) even after 31st March 2009. 

The Central Board of Direct Taxes will shortly issue a detailed circular on the amended rules relating to TDS and TCS. 

View the Press Release Here.

Cadre review and restucturing report : Likely to be available in April.

THE DRAFT REPORT OF THE CADRE REVIEW COMMITTEE IS NOT LIKELY TO BECOME AVAILABLE ON 2^ND APRIL AS PROMISED BY DIRECTOR (HRD).

THE MEETING OF THE SECRETARIAT AND WORKING COMMITTEE OF INCOME TAX EMPLOYEES' FEDERATION STANDS POSTPONED.THE SAID MEETING WAS SCHEDULED ON 19TH APRIL AT NEW DELHI  THE NEXT DATE WILL BE COMMUNICATED LATER.

SOURCE : ITEF.

Cadre review and restructuring report : Some Inside News.

The Income Tax Dept. is yet to submit it's report in this regard. As per our sources, the report is almost finalised. Different sub committees had shown their presentation in this respect. We could collect some part of the presentation of the restructuring report by our sources. For the benefit of our viewers, we represent the synopsis. It may kindly be noted that it is not an official publication.

CADRE REVIEW OF THE INCOME TAX DEPARTMENT

 

ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONS AND RECOMENDATION FOR RANGE LEVEL ORGANISATION

 

 

 

Sub-Committee Members:

Sh. Vinodanand Jha, DIT (Inv.), Bhopal

Sh. J. Krishna Kishore, Addl. CIT, Hyderabad

Sh. Sanjiv Shankar, Addl. CIT, Delhi

Sh. Rajesh D. Menon, Rep. of ITGOA

 

 

 

VISION, MISSION AND VALUES OF INCOME TAX DEPARTMENT 

•      Our Vision

•      The Department will be recognized as a professional organization, collecting resources efficiently, considerate towards its clients, adapting and improving and promoting voluntary compliance.

 

•      Our Mission

•      To promote compliance with our direct tax laws, through caring taxpayer service and strict enforcement and thus realize maximum resources for the Nation.

 

•      Our Values

•      Integrity of conduct, Dedication to our duties and values, Professionalism in our work, Attitude of service to our clients and Fostering mutual confidence.

OBJECTIVES OF CADRE REVIEW

•    To enhance the effectiveness of the service.

•    Restructure the cadre as to harmonise the functional needs with the legitimate career expectations of its members

•    Estimate future manpower requirements on a scientific basis over the review period

•    Plan recruitment in such a way as to avoid future promotional blocks and at the same time prevent gaps building up

 

GUIDELINES

•    Cadre Review should take into account:

 

ØBPR Exercise and Report

Ø6^th Central Pay Commission Report

ØDOPT/ Government Instructions

FUNCTIONS OF RANGE

The main functions at Range Level are :

Enforcement of the Income tax, Wealth-tax and other direct taxes

laws which are complicated, fast changing and dynamic, subject to

Regular amendments including through the annual Finance Act,

through an integrated process of:

 

v      Receipt of Returns including those relating to Income and Wealth

 

(2) Receipt and dispatch of Internal and external correspondence

 

(3) Processing of Returns

 

(4)Record Keeping of Assessees files and Maintenance of

    Statutory/Administrative/Technical Records

 

(5) Issuance of Refunds

 

(6) Issuance of Notices

 

(7) Assessments and Re-assessments                                     Continued……

FUNCTIONS OF RANGE

FUNCTIONS OF RANGE

FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION  OF RANGE

 

Broadly, the Ranges can be functionally classified as:

Ø  Corporate

Ø  Non-Corporate

Ø  In some charges we find a mix of both Corporate and Non Corporate assessees within the same Range.

 

Ø  Besides the above, Addl. / Joint CITs are posted in various other areas such as Exemptions, Audit, CIB, Investigation, Headquarters, ITAT, Systems/Computer Operations,  various Directorates, CBDT etc.

PRESENT OFFICER/STAFF STRUCTURE  OF RANGES

 

•     Corporate ranges:

Ø   1Addl/ Joint CIT, with 1 ITI, 2 TA (For Inward and outward correspondence), 2 OS, 1/4^th  Steno, 1/3 Peon

Ø   3 ACIT/DCIT each with 1 ITI, 2 TA/Sr. TA, 1/3^rd Steno and 1/4^th Group D

Ø   2 ITO and 1 TRO (Post usually vacant) each with 1 ITI, 2 TA/Sr. TA, 1/3^rd Steno and 1/4^th Group D

 

•     Non-Corporate ranges:

Ø   1Addl/ Joint CIT, with 1 ITI, 2 TA (For Inward and outward correspondence), 2 OS, 1/4^th  Steno, 1/3 Peon

Ø   1 ACIT/DCIT with 1 ITI, 2 TA/Sr. TA, 1/3^rd Steno and 1/4^th Group D

Ø   4 ITO and 1 TRO (Post usually vacant) each with 1 ITI, 2 TA/Sr. TA, 1/3^rd Steno and 1/4^th Group D

Source: Working strength in AP Charge

 

INCREASE IN WORKLOAD OF RANGES

Present workload and Projected:

RECENT  ISSUES WHICH WILL IMPACT THE FUNCTIONING OF RANGES

Ø    BPR Report.

Ø    Creation of New Directorates without providing  for additional staff.

Ø    Non filling of vacant posts and short fall at various level including additional CITs, Inspectors, Stenographers etc.

Ø    Substantial economic growth indicated by increases in turnovers and incomes, resulting in increasing  tax base.

Ø    Massive increase of 460% in collection of taxes which have risen from Rs. 68305 Cr in 2000-01 to Rs. 314468 Cr in 2007-08.

Ø    Massive increase of number of effective assessees from 2,30,02,276 in 2000-01 to 3,36,62,801 in 2007-08.

Ø    Massive increase in workload of assessment (including processing) from 3,37,28,373 cases in 2001-02 to 4,01,92,130 in 2007-08.

Ø    Increase in information flow from various sources including CIB, AIR and other internal and external sources, which require enquiries at Range level.

Ø    Implementation of OLTAS, e-filing of returns, change over to AST, overall increase in computerization processes at various levels etc.

Ø    The new file management system has given rise to several problems, which have led to poor access to files, particularly back records.

Ø    The quantum of scrutiny assessments in area such as central circle have increased substantially. CAS has increased the scrutiny quantum in other ranges.

 

IMPACT OF BPR

•      Separation of routine and assessment/ core functions through the medium of BOD and COD units, is a welcome feature, as it will enable Ranges to focus on core functions of investigation and assessment.

•      The BPR implementation should take into account the need for easy and timely access of the files to the assessing officers. This is particularly necessary for carrying out survey related activities, reopening assessment u/s 147, carrying out enquiries, gathering intelligence, verification of third party information etc.

•      Large section of Indian economy is in the unorganized sector. It is a matter of fact that substantial portion of the economic transactions are unaccounted, mostly made in cash and outside the banking channels. More than 90% of the population do not have access to computers. The BPR should take the peculiar features of Indian economy into account as otherwise, substantial section of the economy would be lest out, which will go against the objective of widening of tax payer base.

•      Implementation of BPR should not result in reduction of  staff, particularly at the level of inspectors and stenographers, in view of the massive projected increase in work load in the near vicinity.

 YEAR WISE TOTAL TAX REVENUE (Incl. Projected)

(Source upto 2007-08:Adminstrative Hand book. Projections are based on average growth rate of preceding  10 years)

WORKLOAD AND DISPOSAL OF INCOME TAX CASES DURING THE LAST 10 YEARS AND PROJECTION
(Source upto 2007-08:Adminstrative Hand book. Projections are based on average growth rate of preceding 10 years)

NUMBER OF EFFECTIVE ASSESSEES
 (Source upto 2007-08:Adminstrative Hand book. Projections are based on average growth rate of preceding 10 years)

 

 

F.Y.        Company        Individual         HUF    Firms       Trusts     Others          TOTAL

1996-97       227228        9761426       412470        1158319       49629 34471 11643543

1997-98       274319        11194953     437251        1172647       51865 36701 13167736

1998-99       295327        15135956     469730        1228023       83847 41328 17254211

1999-00       309627        17653745     507843        1272217       87165 46427 19877024

2000-01       334261        20662926     553194        1336861       63999 51035 23002276

2001-02       349185        23734413     607519        1378706       97272 58784 26225879

2002-03       365124        25935556     644489        1345232       117304        57224 28464929

2003-04       372483        26624224     654848        1338613       154276        57952 29202396

2004-05       373165        24792990     620468        1235373       71375 65190 27158561

2005-06       382021        27370659     642759        1234424       74543 58077 29762483

2006-07       398014        29355248     761439        1241642       75610 71184 31903137

2007-08       498066        30868243     780853        1368373       74077 73189 33662801

 

2008-09       536417        34418091     828485        1390267       80670 78678 37332608

2009-10       577721        38376171     879023        1412511       87850 84579 41417855

2010-11       622206        42789431     932643        1435111       95669 90922 45965982

2011-12       670116        47710216     989534        1458073       104184        97741 51029864

2012-13       721715        53196891     1049896       1481402       113456        105072        56668432

2013-14       777287        59314533     1113940       1505104       123554        112952        62947370

2014-15       837138        66135704     1181890       1529186       134550        121423        69939891

SUGGESTED WORKLOAD PER RANGE

•      Keeping in view with the massive increase in work load projected for the coming years and the need to increase the tax base and also improve the investigation process, the following work load per range is suggested:

 

 

Officer               OS          ITI           Sr TA / TA          Steno         Group D

 

Addl. CIT      02          02               03                  01                   01

 

ACIT/DCIT    -            03                02                01                    01

 

ITO              -            02                02                01                   01

 

TRO              -           02                02                01                    01

 SUGGESTED STRENGTH OF RANGES

•      It is suggested that a number of ranges may be decided in accordance with the above stated ideal/desirable  work load per range i.e. 6000 per corporate range and 50000 for non corporate range. Accordingly,  the following strength of Ranges is suggested:

                           2007-08                     2011-12                     2014-15

                 Assessees    Ranges    Assessees     Ranges     Assessees    Ranges

Corporate          498066      83        670116        112           837138       140

(@6000 Assessees

per Range)

Non Corporate 33164735    663    50359748       1008        69102693     1382

(@50000 Assessees

 per Range)

 

Total              33662801     746    51029864        1130       69939891     1522

SUGGESTED STRENGTH OF OFFICERS CORPORATE RANGES

                               2007-08             2011-12           2014-15

No. of Ranges             83                     112                  140

 

Addl. CIT                   83                      112                  140

 

ACIT/DCIT                249                     336                  420  

 

ITO                          332                     448                  560

 

TRO                         83                       112                  140

 

SUGGESTED STRENGTH OF
GROUP C & D POSTS PER OFFICER

•      The Group C & Group D posts may be increased in accordance with the afore said increase in number of officers as per the following suggestions:

CREATION OF SPECIAL RANGES

    Keeping in view the increase high volume cases both in terms of turnover and profitability, several suggestions have been received for revival of special ranges to be headed by JCIT/Addl. CIT level officers. It was also felt that this move will remove the burden of assessments from range heads, who can now exclusively concentrate on supervisory and managerial functions. If this move is adopted, it is suggested that 250 special ranges may be created, one in each CIT(Admn) charges. In large metros, two special ranges per CIT(Admn) charge may be created.

      Another suggestion received was to create a system of close monitoring, audit and supervision of assessment by range heads, as an alternative to creation of special ranges.

OTHER CHANGES SUGGESTED

•    Financial powers at Range level

•    Functional autonomy

•    Industry/ Trade based Jurisdiction

•    Improvement of Record Keeping and File management

•    Tax Payers Assistance Cell at Range Level

•    Decentralisation and Delegation

•    Real-time, Online  E- Reports

•    Range level training programmes, study circles, seminars, exchange of ideas and knowledge

•    Intelligence Units at Range Level

 We will try to provide more information in this regard as and when available.

Source : Did not want to be named.