— Photo: Kamal Narang

PAPERLESS FILING: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram handing over the printed acknowledgement of the income tax return filed electronically by TCS to S. Ramadorai, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, TCS, in New Delhi on Friday. Revenue Secretary, K. M. Chandrasekhar (sitting), looks on.

NEW DELHI: The Centre has now made it mandatory for corporates to file their tax returns through the electronic-filing, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said here on Friday.

E-filing of tax returns, Mr Chidambaram said, was part of the Centre's efforts to foster "friendlier relations'' between assessees and tax authorities. Launching the system at a function here, he declared that more "friendly initiatives are under way and will be announced in due course.'' At the launch function, the first two corporate entities that came forward to avail themselves of the new facility were Tata Consultancy Services and Hero Honda Motors.

Mr. Chidambaram claimed that the significant increase of 40.9 per cent in direct tax collections during the first half of this fiscal was due to the constant endeavour of tax authorities to improve relations with assessees.

The e-filing system, Mr. Chidambaram noted, was initially introduced in 2004 for individuals and personal taxpayers and it had now been made mandatory for corporates. Corporate entities filing their returns through digital signatures, he said, would not be required to furnish the tax return papers.

However, those filing their returns through intermediates or without digital signatures would have to supplement it with paper returns. He hoped that the corporates would file their returns through the electronic system in large numbers, for which the deadline is October 31. Mr. Chidambaram made it clear that e-filing was not mandatory for individuals, non-corporates and trusts. Explaining the rationale, he said trusts were run by a large number of people and many among them might not be tech-savvy.

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