I-T Refund' fortnight from August 16 to 31 for long pending cases of the salaried tax payers

     The Income Tax Department will observe the second fortnight of August  2010 as ‘I-T Refund' period to solve the long pending complaints of the  salaried tax payers up to the assessment year 2008-2009, said Prema Malini  Vasan, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax on Wednesday.

   “I-T Refund fortnight will be observed throughout the State from August 16  to 31. Our officers will sit with the assessees and solve the issue across  the table. Currently, we have around 2,200 complaints pending with the  department with regard to non-receipt of refunds for a long time,” Ms. Vasan  told The Hindu.

    Department officials have requested the aggrieved salaried tax payers to  bring along with them the original TDS certificate, Form 16, PAN card, TAN  number, bank account details and current postal address. Additionally, tax  payers can view their tax credit status by logging on to www.tin-nsdl.com,  the officers said.

    Inaugurating the four-day Special Return Receipt Counters at Aayakar Bhavan,  Ms. Vasan said that she expected more than 2.5 lakh salaried assessees to  make use of the facility. The salaried tax payers of Tambaram and  Kancheepuram Income Tax office can also make use of the facility. Recently,  the department opened special counters at eight different places in the city  in which more than 40,000 assessees filed their returns.

     At Aayakar Bhavan, 40 Special Return Receipt Counters and 20 help desks have  been set up to help the tax payers that would be manned by 25 officers, 250  staff and some volunteers. Separate counters have been set up for senior  citizens and differently-abled persons. The counters will operate from 9.45  a.m. to 5.30 p.m. on each day till Saturday. At Tambaram, 14 special  counters are manned by 14 officers and 50 staff.

    “So far, the department has collected 22 per cent of taxes for the financial  year 2010-2011 amounting to Rs.5,500 crore. The target for this year is  Rs.28,150 crore against Rs.25,000 crore for last year,” she said.

    Last year, 2.51 lakh assessees made use of the special counters. In all, the  department last year received more than 18.67 lakh paper returns and 4 lakh  assessees e-returns.

Source - The Hindu