When asked how soon the new appraisal form is expected, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairperson Anita Kapur said, “This year’s review will be based on new proforma.”

New Delhi – Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the I-T department will introduce a system of online scrutiny of returns and modify the performance appraisal proforma of officials with a view to motivating them to pass correct orders and also check corruption.

Stating that the government is taking several steps to serve honest tax-payers, Modi said this year, 91 per cent of electronic returns were processed within 90 days as compared to 46 per cent last year.

“I have also instructed that the performance appraisal system for Income Tax Officers be changed. The appraisal should reflect, whether or not the officer’s orders and assessments have been upheld on appeal. This will deter corruption and also motivate officers to pass correct orders,” Modi said at the 6th Delhi Economic Conclave here.

The I-T department, he said, will move to a system where not only returns but also scrutiny is done without having to go to the tax office.

“Queries could be raised and answered online or by email. There should be a visible electronic trail of what is pending with whom, where, and for how long. This is being piloted in five big cities,” Modi said.

He said the electronic filing of returns now covers 85 per cent of all tax returns and this year the tax department has introduced e-verification using Aadhaar. Over four million taxpayers made use of this facility.

Earlier, electronic returns had to be followed by a paper verification which used to take weeks to get processed, Modi said.

“When fully implemented, these changes, namely online scrutiny, and changes in performance appraisal have transformative potential,” Modi added.

When asked how soon the new appraisal form is expected, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairperson Anita Kapur said, “This year’s review will be based on new proforma.”

She further said the tax department has launched pilot projects for five cities wherein the officers will send questionnaires online and get the response online.

Source: PTI – The Economic Times

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Paving the way for launching a massive recruitment drive to hire around 19,000 tax officials across the country in the next couple of years, the group of ministers on cadre restructuring of income tax department on Monday gave its nod to the proposal of substantially increasing the strength of revenue officials.

These recruitments will take place in a phased manner. While 800 of them will be recruited as Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers in Group A, remaining over 18,000 will be employed as Group B and Group C officials.

“The proposal will now go to the Cabinet. The recruitment drive will be launched after getting Cabinet approval,” an official said.

Sources said the GoM — comprising finance minister P Chidambaram, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan and minister of personnel V Narayanasamy – also decided to extend the rank and pay of special secretaries to chief commissioners of large income tax zones and to chiefs of various directorates under the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

It is learnt that the group of ministers gave its nod to increase the strength of IRS and other income tax officials despite opposition to it from Narayanasamy who argued that other departments may ask for increasing the strength of their respective cadres once the government allows it for income tax department.

The proposal was, however, cleared when the finance minister convincingly spoke on the merit of the decision. Ministers, during a brief meeting, agreed that the move will significantly increase the efficiency of tax administration at the time when the government is committed to increase its tax collection besides providing better and faster delivery of services.

The finance minister is learnt to have dismissed the argument that creating a higher number of senior positions would lead to problems pointing out that even states such as Andhra Pradesh had several chief secretary rank officials and there were more director general of police in place than the number of states. He noted that his ministry was going to undertake a restructuring of roles of the officials in order to ensure a greater mopping up of taxes.

It was pointed out in the meeting that the move would not only help tax payers in getting quicker refunds, but would also detect the high net worth individuals who, at times, either escape the tax net or just end up under-paying taxes.
Source : Times of India
[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ministerial-panel-okays-hiring-of-19k-more-tax-officials/articleshow/19793542.cms]

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