In what could come as a good news for taxpayers in the new year, the Income Tax department has asked its officials to resolve their grievances within 30 days time.
The department’s new wing called the ‘Directorate of Tax Payer Services’ has asked all the regional heads of the I—T to ensure that “there are no grievances aged more than 30 days pending at any level” pertaining to complaints of refunds, PAN issues and other Income Tax—related subjects.
In a communication, the Directorate has also underlined the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his review meetings in this regard has “stressed upon adhering to the timeline of 30 days for the redressal of a particular grievance“.
“One of the major reasons for delay in the grievance redressal is failure to identify competent officer to redress the grievance and lack of knowledge of recent circulars or instructions,” the communication said, adding if the person (tax official) dealing with the grievance identifies the competent I-T authority, “a lot of time can be saved“.
The Directorate has also directed the taxman that in case the grievance does not pertain to the authority directed by the CBDT, it “should be transferred back in not more than five days time.”
The Directorate, nodal wing for all taxpayer grievances pan—India, has suggested that the official handling the grievance should give “due attention to the grievance at hand” and ensure that the required action is undertaken without any delay.
The communication added that any action like referring the matter to the Bengaluru—based Central Processing Centre (CPC) of the I—T department (where I—T Returns are e—filed) or a similar centre for Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) processes in Ghaziabad near here, should be intimated in case the issue requires their intervention.
“Sometimes the Assessing Authority fails to understand the processes and sends back the grievance to a wrong person.
