The Hindu : National : e-payment of income tax catches up in Tamil Nadu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 25, 2007
ePaper

National

National

e-payment of income tax catches up in Tamil Nadu

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K. Pichumani

TALKING TAX: C.R. Ravichandran, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, with Radha Srivatsava, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax II, at an awareness programme in Chennai on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: Payment of income tax through the electronic mode has caught up with salaried taxpayers, Hindu Undivided Family and Body of Individuals (BoI) in Chennai and pushed up Tamil Nadu to the fourth rank in e-filing of returns.

From January 1, 2008, e-payment of taxes will be made mandatory for corporate taxpayers and firms requiring Statutory Audit under Section 44AB.

The Income Tax Department conducted an awareness programme on e-filing and e-payment of direct taxes here on Wednesday.

In his introductory note, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax C.R. Ravichandhran said: “e-filing was introduced last year to facilitate the corporate assessees to file the returns through the Internet.” Over 24,000 returns were filed through the e-filing mode for the assessment year 2006-2007, of which 23,265 were corporate returns. So far this year, 44,583 returns have been filed. Of these, 5,307 were corporate returns, 10,113 were from firms and the rest by individuals, Hindu Undivided Family and Body of Individuals. More assessees are expected to file returns before the due date.

Help desk

“To help assessees file the returns electronically on time without convenience and to solve their problems we have opened a full-fledged help desk in the main building of Aayakar Bhawan …Manned by two persons, it will be operational till October 31,” Mr. Ravichandhran said.

To avoid serpentine queues of taxpayers, the Income Tax Department had sought the help of the State Bank of India, UTI, IDBI, HDFC and the Union Bank of India to accept e-payment of taxes.

To make use of the facility, taxpayers must have a net banking account. They can also access the department’s website for e-payment of direct taxes (www.incometaxindia. gov.in).

Tax collection from the State as on date stood at Rs.7,263 crore against Rs.5,603 crore for the corresponding period last year, an increase of 29.63 per cent. Nationwide, it was Rs.1,27,966.30 crore.

There are 27 lakh assessees in Tamil Nadu, and 18 lakh of them filed their returns directly and 24,063 electronically. The total number of assessees in the country is 3.19 crore, and 3.16 lakh had filed their returns.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National