E-returns: CBDT may soon do away with submission of ITRV form

New Delhi: In what could be good news for lakhs of taxpayers filing their I-T returns online, CBDT is mulling doing away with the mandatory submission of paper verification printout to its processing centre in Bangalore.

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex office to formulate policies for the Income Tax department, was prompted to take this "customer-friendly" step after it was recently informed that lakhs of such paper statements -- ITRV -- have not reached its Central Processing Centre (CPC) despite people filing their e-returns online.

CBDT is now considering either bringing a notification to make a change in the rules or an amendment in the I-T Act stipulating that taxpayers filing their returns online will no longer need to send ITRV through post to the Bangalore office. The new measure, deliberated upon by the Finance Ministry and CBDT, will mean that the taxpayer will not even have to procure a digital signature as the department feels it has enough technology at its disposal to check cases of fake returns or under-reported I-T returns.

"There have been regular letters by taxpayers and other bodies to the board in this regard. Recently, it was noticed that lakhs of statements did not reach the CPC. The board may now totally do away with the procedure of sending by post the paper statement of an e-return.

"The decision could happen soon as this concerns a lot of taxpayers and will be seen as customer-friendly," a source privy to the development said.

The thinking at the highest level is that e-filing should be "hassle free and sans any glitches", which will prompt more number of people to file their tax returns this way. 

The I-T department is also bolstered by the fact that more and more number of people are opting to file their returns online.

According to current procedures, when a taxpayer files his or her returns online, the person is required to mandatorily send the 'ITRV' by post to the I-T department's CPC based in Bangalore within 120 days.

The CPC, in return, sends an electronic acknowledgement to the tax return filer. The problem arises when the document sent by post does not reach the CPC because of lapses on the part of the taxpayer or some other reason.

In case of digital signatures (used by corporate entities), a bonafide statement that verifies the identity of the sender is required to be created by paying a fee and this requires regular renewal, which is why this is seen as a burden on salaried class and categories of small taxpayers.