The Income Tax
Department is proud to announce that it has been conferred the Silver Award in
the National Awards on e-Governance-2016-17 for the e-filing of Income Tax
returns and other forms project in the category “Incremental Innovations” in
existing projects.
The award is in
recognition of the achievements of the Department in the area of e-Governance
and for significant innovations in successful e-Governance programs in the
current Award period. The e-filing of Income Tax returns project had already
won the Silver Award in the National Awards on e-Governance in 2007-08.
The path breaking
innovations introduced by the Department in the e-filing of Income Tax returns
project are:
i.
Introduction
of electronic Verification Code (EVC)– This innovation introduced in July 2015 enables
the citizen to electronically verify Income tax returns and other forms using EVC
through third party authentication services provided by Aadhaar using Aadhaar
OTP, authentication by banks using net banking, ATM, bank account validation
and Security depositories such as NSDL and CDSL using demat account validation.
The taxpayer can use any of these authenticating mechanisms to receive an
Electronic Verification Code (EVC) which can be entered after submission of a return
to verify and complete the process. This year alone over 1.1 Cr Income Tax
returns have been electronically verified using EVC thereby obviating the need
to submit a paper copy of the ITR-V to CPC Bangalore as was being done earlier.
ii.
Securing
taxpayer account using E-filing Vault– This innovation aims at adding one more level
of authentication to the process of login to the “My Account” of the tax payer
and for resetting of password by leveraging the EVC concept. E-filing Vault
enables the tax payer to completely secure the e-filing account to prevent any
unauthorized access.
iii.
Easy
compliance through Non-Filers Monitoring and E-Sahyog– This innovation
aims at providing convenience to the tax payer for submitting tax compliance response
through the e-filing portal. The taxpayer can now sitting at home or office any
time any where respond to any letter from the Department seeking taxpayer
clarification regarding non filing of return or any mismatch in Income Tax
return. This innovation has the potential to significantly reduce compliance
cost and increase voluntary compliance.
The Income Tax
Department is spurred by the recognition received and is encouraged to initiate
more innovations to facilitate taxpayers through its
e-Governance programs.
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DSM/MS/KA
