Worried over reports of alleged corruption especially in issuing refunds to taxpayers, the Income Tax (IT) department has brought its own officials under strict vigilance scanner and has issued instructions to the top brass to constantly monitor the process.
The IT vigilance wing has also decided to conduct surprise inspections to check the process of issuing refunds from both the department and the bankers' side.
The vigilance wing has found that the issue of refunds is "prone to grievances" from taxpayers and that pro-active measures should be taken by top IT officials to make the process more transparent.
The IT vigilance wing has written to all the Chief Commissioners of Income Tax (CCIT) in this regard.
"A number of complaints regarding refunds including those issued under the Refund Banker Scheme have been brought to the notice of the department. Due to various reasons, the refunds do not reach the taxpayer that result into corruption related to complaints," a senior I-T officer said.
A huge amount of money, running into few crores is processed by the department as a part of refunds, the official said.
"Timely issue and proper delivery of refunds has been a major source of grievance and complaints leading to cases of punitive vigilance.
"As predominant task of vigilance is to prevent fault from taking place, Refund Banker Scheme is one such landmark measure in this area which would go a long way in further reducing the number of public grievances, besides improving quality of service, accountability of employees and consequently, the reputation of the organisation," the vigilance letter said.
The department has also decided to deploy surprise inspection and audit teams to check proper delivery of refunds.
The IT department has extended the Refund Banker Scheme to almost all its offices across the country in collaboration with the State Bank of India (SBI) since September this year.
"Supervisory authority may ask assessing officers to furnish list of all cases where refund remains unpaid for more than a month and ascertain the reasons thereof to take corrective measures. Constant monitoring and follow up would reduce the grievances to a large extent," the anti-corruption watchdog of the department told the CCIT.
The department has identified at least two main reasons for delay in refunds and subsequent complaints against tax officials by taxpayers.
The first category of cases is where necessary instructions were issued by the Assessing Officer (AO) for grant of refunds but same remained unpaid by the banker for long time and needed constant follow up, whereas the second category pertains to cases where the AO has computed the refunds, but same were not picked up by the technical system for issuing instructions to the banker.
As required under the process, once refund is computed by the AO, he is required to fill and confirm bank details and address of the payee. If AO either does not fill the details or fills wrong details, the refund instruction would either be not picked up or the refund would remain unpaid.
"Assessing officers have also been enabled to view all refunds which remain unrealised or unpaid. This apparently is the area which has potential for complaints," the letter said.
