DIRECTORATE OF INCOME TAX (SYSTEMS)
ARA Centre, Ground Floor, E -2, Jhandewalan Extension,
New Delhi — 110055
F. NO. DGIT(S)/DIT(S)-V/ASK/2015-16 /11972
Dated: 20/10/2015
To,
All Pr. Chief Commissioners of Income Tax
All CsIT (Admn. & CO)
Ahmedabad/Bangalore/Bhubaneswar/Bhopal/Chandigarh/Chennai/Kochi/
Guwahati/Hyderabad/Jaipur/Kanpur/Kolkata/Lucknow/Mumbai/Delhi/
Patna/Pune/Nagpur.
Madam/Sir,
Subject : Redressal of grievances received from Taxpayers by email at Aayakar Sampark Kendra – Reg.
Please refer to the above mentioned subject.
2. Aayakar Sampark Kendra (ASK) is one of the initiatives of the Income Tax Department to provide Taxpayer Information and Services to the taxpayers across the country. At present five call centers of Aayakar Sampark Kendra (One NCC at Gurgaon and four RCCs at Jammu, Jangipur, Kochi and Shillong) are functioning to answer queries related to the status of PAN & TAN applications, procedure of filing of Income tax & Wealth tax returns, downloading of calls and other general queries. Taxpayers have also been provided a facility to register grievances through email through the call centers of ASK. At present the grievances are received by e-mail at ASK call centers on following e-mail ids:-
(i) ask@incometax.gov.in
(ii) pan@incometax.gov.in
(iii) refunds@incometax.gov.in
3. The nature of grievances received at ASK is broadly as below:-
• PAN Correction/De-duplication
• TAN Correction/De-duplication
• Pending Refunds
• Refund Adjustment against Demand
• efiling Rectification / Intimation u/s 143/154
• Payment of taxes under OLTAS etc.
4. In order to provide quick resolution of taxpayer’s grievance, wherever action is required to be taken by the officers in field formation, the Aayakar Sampark Kendra should forward the email to concerned CIT (Admn.& CO) for onward transmission to respective Jurisdictional Pr. CCIT/CCIT/Pr.CIT/CIT/Assessing Officer for necessary action. The taxpayer may also be informed so that he may do further correspondence with the concerned officer.
5. This issues with the approval of Pr. DGIT (Systems).
Yours faithfully,
(M. Barnwal)
Joint Director of Income Tax (Systems)-S
INSPITE OF VARIOUS EFFORTS BY GOVT TO REDRESS THE GREVIENCE OF TAX PAYER THROUGH E NIVARAN,ASK ETC ,THE RESOLUTION IS VERY SLOW AND THE ASSESSE HAS TO WAIT A LONG FOR KNOWING WHAT TO DO REGARDING HIS PROBLEM .EVEN AFTER SYSTEM OF REFUNDING OF EXTRA TAX THROUGH BANKS ,DELAY IS TAKING PLACE AND ASSESSES HAVE TO VISIT THE DEPARTMENTS AND ARE SOMETIMES ,DEMANDS ARE MADE FROM THEM FOR CLEARING THEIR PROBLEMS. AS THE GOVT IS ACEPTING LAPSES ON PART OF ITS EMPLOYEES ,SIMILARLY SOME RELAXATIONS SHOULD BE GRANTED TO TAX PAYERS AND THE PROCESS OF IMPOSING PENALITIES FOR EVERY LITTLE LAPSE ,WHICH MAY BE DUE TO BONAFIDE REASONS SHOULD BE IGNORED ,CONSIDERING THAT TAX PAYER IS DOING HIS BIT TO PAY HIS TAXES AND THUS THEY SHOULD BE DEALT WITH LENIENTLY BY THE DEPARTMENT AND SHOULD NOT BE MADE TO RUN FROM ONE TO OTHER PLACE FOR REDRESSAL OF THEIR PENDING WORKS WITH THE DEPARTMENT .
Dear Joint Director of Income Tax (Systems)-S, you may be feeling elated by issuing such directions to the subordinates, but what about the e-mails to the Hon’ble Chair Person, CBDT, and other Officers in the Board. who do not bother even to acknowledge e-mails or written representations (having public interest) at all. First raise your vice against the attitude- not only of subordinates but of the Higher-ups also.
Not one letter is acknowledged nor time schedules fixed for initiating action by the board followed.The response is always a long wound one or a cryptic one .Both do not serve any purpose.They take their own time to decide simple matters They adhere to the age old adage Time is a great healer………….will take care of all the ills.
Dear Shri Verma, I agree with you. I may go a step further and say that I had sought appointment with Hon. Finance Minister by email regarding an urgent matter. But there has been no response till date not even an acknowledgement. Notwithstanding, I appreciate the directions of CBDT to ASK to forward email of taxpayer to concerned CIT(admn) who will forward to concerned AO through his/her supervisory officer. One point not clear from the CBDT directions is who will inform the taxpayer of status of his email. It will be helpful for taxpayers if CBDT clarifies that ASK/ supervisory officers/ AOs will CC their email as the email drills down or horizontally to another AO if jurisdiction vests with the other
officer. This way the tax payer will be saved from seeking information under the RTI act, 2005 on the status of his grievance petition from multiple authorities.
There can’t better news than this provided the system works and moves. Issuing refunds early will save department from paying interest on delayed refunds. The department will earn stars.