India's Income Tax Department Unveils BPR Aims

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

02 September 2008

India's Income Tax Department last week gave further details of initiatives to be undertaken under its Business Process Reengineering project, which will enable individuals to make tax payments through ATMs, amongst other changes.

Publishing a preliminary set of proposals, the tax department explained that it is aiming to implement projects aimed at providing better taxpayer service, reducing the compliance burden on tax payers and improving enforcement.

Key initiatives proposed under the auspices of the BPR project include:

• Allowing individuals to pay taxes via ATMs;
• The establishment of call centres to deal with queries and automatic updating of the address for Permanent Account Numbers by copying it from the tax return filed;
• The establishment of a Directorate of Taxpayer Services to address taxpayer grievances and educate them on tax matters;
• Taxpayers will be able to receive refunds faster after the department implements a technology that will automatically match returns with the taxes paid; and
• The establishment of a text message service for disseminating information to taxpayers.

Taxpayers can also look forward to better services when they visit tax offices, according to the tax department.

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