I-T and IT

My father, a career banker, decided to call me up at 1900 hours on fourth. of the month Apparently, the peon in his office had been unable to file tax return he had requested him to submit a week back. The call was, obviously, an SOS, given the last date for filing sans penalty. Two things are important in this context. First is a lesser known fact - which I believe is kept deliberately so - that one can file tax return till end of the assessment year, i.e., March 31st of the financial year falling next to the fiscal one is filing return for. There is a catch, nevertheless. The assesse must not have any tax due to the government. My father could have rescued himself of this needless anxiety till March 31, 2011, as he was to file just the tax return, and - unlike me - not due to pay taxes, for fiscal year 2009-10. The deliberate lack of advertisement of this useful rule, perhaps, stems from the objective of achieving compliance. Form 16, and other assorted documents relevant for filing, are normally available by the end of April. In case the organisation one works for is small and has IT enabled systems, the time frame is even shorter. The tax filing can happen no sooner these documents are available. Still, the filing process gains pace only in the month of July, with a mad rush towards the last week of the month. Knowledge of the aforementioned rule would delay it even more. So much for the first.

It was the second thing that impressed me. Post finishing some silly work, I logged on to the online tax return filing site. That was around 1950 hours. In minutes, I could register his PAN filling out a simple form. Almost instantly, the account activation mail was delivered in the in-box (obviously, I wasn't using Lotus Notes). Upon clicking the provided activation link, the account was operational and I could file return. Being a rightful beneficiary of his will, it was me who had prepared his return, using the excel utility provided by the very site. I had to generate the XML to file the return online. A simple button click in the utility served the purpose. Next, I uploaded the generated XML and completed the filing by submitting the same. Next screen informed me of successful filing, giving a link to download the acknowledgement, otherwise called ITR-V. The clock hadn't crossed the 2000 mark. 

Cynically speaking, it would seem to hype a rudimentary functionality. But, one must never forget that it's government of India website. First of all, it wasn't garish. Second, it worked. Okay, works only on IE, but it delivers. Third, the menus, navigation, FAQs, et al had a language that can be understood (in real time) and did not have elementary spelling mistakes. Next, links were functional and weren't pointing to something like 'http://C:\Documents And Settings\Administrator\My Documents\...'. The information was consistent and updated. And best of all, it didn't crash due to traffic, a la, IIT websites during JEE results. It is no mean achievement to have a usable website, when it comes to any government project. The website was a plesant surprise. Subsequently, I got an acknowledgement e-mail, within a week of sending the signed ITR-V by post, confirming reciept of it. That's unbelievable!

Turn around time of less than 10 minutes is, most certainly, laudable. Of course, this was my second filing. I must ascribe the ease to the filing I had done, for filing my tax return. Nevertheless, the time taken wasn't much larger in that attempt too. The Excel utility is a tad trouble, though. Primarily due to the pervasive ugliness of MicroSoft products. Secondly, due to the arcane taxation laws. The developer must have had tough time meeting the requirements. I would like to see an online version of the same, where the assesse submits the details in a web based form. (Without much digression, I would suggest that only non-salary incomes and elements not finding mention in Form 16 should need to be entered by the assesse. The rest can come for the employer.) The data validation and tax computation, then, would happen on a server. Finally, the user may be given an error log or, in the event of success, an option to submit the return online. The server doing the computation can generate the XML and feed to the exiting software system, eliminating the need to have a Excel based client dependent modules. Such web based facility would also obviate the need to make assesses download the latest applicable utility versions for the assessment year. Just like Google keeps updating their cloud apps.

Now, that's not asking too much. The team that envisaged and designed the current process looks capable of bringing in these features too. It would certainly take off the load on the I-T offices and ensure even better compliance, as the young populace is more inclined to online activities. That said, it's hard to fathom why a government agency would choose to be user friendly and focused on customer satisfaction. Spcially, without any incentive to be so. Lets hope other wings of the government, including umpteen PSUs, take the cue and put some effort in making their web presence more respectable. Good job I-T men.


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Addendum - 1


The Union budget 2011, presented yesterday, apparently, 'lifted' the idea of doing away with filing returns for humble salaries, from this post. It's a good step. The limit of 5 lakhs, however, seems rather arbitrary. Simply do away with entire filing for all organised sector tax payers, lest of course, they are venturing into property transactions. The stock dealings can be tracked from exchanges. Interest on bank deposits, again, can be tracked from banks. Both the financial institutions claim to have state-of-the-art systems. Lets harness the prowess.