Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday proposed to introduce a new simplified income tax return form 'Sugam' to reduce compliance burden of small taxpayers. "I propose to introduce a new simplified return form 'Sugam' to reduce the compliance burden of small taxpayers who fall within the scope of presumptive taxation," Mukherjee said in his Budget speech.
He also said the Income Tax Department will launch 58 more Aaykar Seva Kendra (ASK) or the Sevottam centre scheme for serving tax payers more efficiently.
ASK is a pilot project initiated by the I-T Department to set up a one-stop service centre for enquiries. "The three pilot projects of Aaykar Seva Kendras (ASKs) under CBDT have come of age.
CBDT will commission eight more such centres this year. In 2011-12, another fifty ASKs will be set up across the country," Mukherjee said in his Budget speech.
Currently, these pilot projects are at Pune, Cochin and Chandigarh. Besides, the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) at Bengaluru has increased its daily processing capacity from 20,000 to 1.5 lakh returns in 2010-11.
"Two more CPCs will become operational in Manesar and Pune by May, 2011 and a fourth CPC will come up in Kolkata in 2011-12," he added.
He added CBDT will provide a separate web-based facility to enable a direct, stand-alone interface for taxpayers with the I-T Department, so that they can report and track the resolution of their refunds and credit for prepaid taxes.
Mukherjee also proposed to launch a new scheme with an outlay of Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) to provide assistance to states to modernise their stamp and registration administration and roll out e-stamping in all the districts in the next three years.
"With the development of the economy, the need to review the provisions of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 has been felt over the years. I propose to introduce a Bill shortly to amend the Indian Stamp Act," he added.
