The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to consider hiving off its technology-driven taxpayer services to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that could better deliver such services in the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.
Inaugurating the 26th Annual Conference of the Chief Commissioners of Income Tax (CCIT) and the Director-General of Income Tax (DGIT), Mr Mukherjee pointed out that it may not be possible for the Tax Department to deliver the technology-driven services of the desired quality in the existing structure of tax administration.
“CBDT may come out with a new structure that leads to faster adoption of technology and innovation”, Mr Mukherjee said. Currently, the Income-Tax Department is providing a slew of technology-related services including e-filing of returns, e-payment of taxes, taxpayer-related information, tax credit information, and e-TDS. If these services are moved over to an SPV, they could be provided more effectively, official sources said. This would also help in providing certain value-added services in the coming days. The I-T Department is often constrained by government rules on expenditure. The SPV could also look at raising its own resources.
The Finance Minister said that efforts should be made to further popularise and increase e-filing of tax returns and e-payment of taxes to reduce paperwork. He also wanted the CBDT to set up expeditiously the centralised processing centres (CPC) in Pune and Manesar.
