In
a major step aimed at easing taxpayer grievances, the Central Board of Direct
Taxes (CBDT) on Friday said assessees filing income tax (I-T) returns online
will no longer have to send the paper acknowledgement by post, as a new
Aadhaar-based electronic verification code has been launched to authenticate
this document.
CBDT,
the apex policy making body of the I-T department, has introduced a new column
in the I-T returns for 2015-16.
Where
an e-filer can provide his Aadhaar number that will have to be authenticated on
the official website of the department via a One Time Password.
"A
new electronic verification code, has been included as the new mode to verify
e-returns. The facility will soon be hosted on the website of the e-filing link
of the department.
The
taxpayers no longer need to send the I-T return-V paper document to the central
processing centre in Bengaluru, thus ending the cumbersome process which was
robbing the e-filing of its ease and fun," a senior I-T officer told PTI.
The
procees, as explained by the officer, will require the e-filer to register his
Aadhaar number in the ITR after which the UIDAI database will send an OTP to
the registered mobile number of the taxpayer which subsequently will have to be
authenticated on the e-filing website.
The
I-T Systems Directorate, the officer said, is also in the process of validating
net banking identity as the verifier of e-filed I-T returns "very
soon."
The
I-T department, through CBDT, had recently decided to completely do away with
the "cumbersome" procedure undertaken currently by a taxpayer to send
his or her ITR-V (Verification) form to the department's Central Processing
Centre (CPC) based in Bengaluru through post.
A
number of taxpayers have earlier complained to the department that despite
sending the hard copy of ITR-V by "speed or registered post" their
forms were being acknowledged by CPC as "not received" and hence the
department has since long been looking at options to do away with this system
altogether.
As
per existing rules, a person who files his or her tax return online has to send
a copy of the ITR-V to CPC within 120 days for processing of the return.
CBDT
had in October last year amended the provisions of the I-T Act and made it easy
for the department to undertake these new methods for "validation" of
e-returns.
The
new measure will ease the process of quick generation of refunds of taxpayers.
