Govt approves project, aims to reduce I-T refund time to single day

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 16

The government on Wednesday announced awarding a contract to Infosys for setting up an integral portal for e-filing of Income Tax (I-T) returns and their processing, which is aimed at reducing the time for refund from current 63 days to one. The project is name as "Integrated E-filing & Centralised Centre 2.0 Project" of the Income Tax Department.

A decision in this regards was taken at the meeting of Union Cabinet, which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, informed Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, who also said that the project has been granted to Indian IT giant Infosys on the basis of L-1 bidding.

"The project will cost Rs 4,241 crore and will be completed in next 18 months," he said, adding that once the integrated portal will become operational the projection is that rectification requests will come down to 0.2 per cent from the current 2 per cent.

After integration of e-filing of IT returns and their processing the time taken would reduce to one day from the present 63 days on an average, the Minister informed.

The portal will also smoothen and fasten the process of completing outstanding demand from the department, as it will enhance "user experience at all stages", the minister said, adding that by suing media efforts will be made to improve taxpayer awareness and education through continuous engagement. This will also improve tax compliance, he added.