The Income Tax department has issued 40 lakh refunds worth Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in the current financial year to taxpayers and orders have been issued to generate the remaining few lakhs soon. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sudhir Chandra gave the figures while addressing the top brass and officials of the I-T department across the country through video-conferencing from his North block office.
He said the department has successfully achieved the tax collection target of Rs 4.46 crore (Rs 44.6 million) despite issuing 85 lakh refunds worth Rs 74,000 crore in 2010-11. Chandra, during his about two-hour-long conference, asked the I-T officials to rectify all Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) mismatch applications and improve taxpayer facilities with regard to issuing refunds.
According to a senior I-T official, he also asked the department officials to improve the condition of Income Tax offices after he recently found out the poor maintenance of the offices in a surprise visit.
While Chandra congratulated I-T officials for issuing record refunds to taxpayers, he pointed out that top officials of the department should visit mofussil offices their jurisdiction regularly, which are thronged by taxpayers everyday for tax related grievances and complaints.
"Offices were cluttered with old and obsolete furniture and typewriters, dilapidated coolers, broken tubelights -- all covered with thick layers of dust, and basic amenities like water coolers were not functioning," Chandra recently wrote in his letter to senior I-T department officers. Expressing displeasure over the "indifferent attitude" of some senior officers towards junior colleagues, he had asked them to "assume leadership role".
Chandra had also rapped top I-T officials for the "total disconnect" between the Chief Commissioners of I-T and their subordinate staff.
He had advised all the Chief Commissioners and Commissioners to "regularly visit all their mofussil offices, establish a connect with the officers and staff posted there and motivate and provide them with the best of office conditions to enable them to give their very best to the nation."
