After receiving complaints from the tax payers including those who have submitted IT returns online, the income tax (I-T) department is reportedly planning to ease the process of e-filing. The proposed change may give off the requirement of submitting the hard copies of returns for verification.

At present the taxpayers are submitting the signed hard copies and copies of required documents after filing the IT returns online, which are taking longer time to be verified by the centralised processing centre (CPC) in Bangalore. The latest proposal may come into effect in the second half of this financial year.

The steps to improvise the e-file returns will make many taxpayers happy as it will reduce their time taken for filling and even the IT department can process the data within short span of time. Along with this move, IT department is considering including electronic signatures and mentioning of Aadhar number for better accountability.

The new method of finalizing the e-returns will save time, but the government has to ensure all the data are stored properly after the complete verification from different sources like banks and insurance firms.

By Premji