I-T dept begins work on real-time network

The Income Tax (I-T) Department has embarked on a plan to create a national data centre to facilitate a management information systems-based, real-time analysis of data for quick and effective decision making.

There will be a single custodian of all data captured by the integrated system. The MIS advisory panel of the department has recommended that the Directorate of Organisation and Management Services will be the nodal agency for all statistical data.

In the new system, reports of the investigation wing associated with search and seizure activities would be filed within 24 hours. Daily collection reports would be generated through the system and made available to the top management.

The advisory group has suggested the new MIS format be implemented with immediate effect. The required capabilities are being put in place.

The system will have safeguards to ensure security of all information assets and the database, through systemic implementation of periodic vulnerability testing, security and forensic audits to prevent fraud.

A senior official told Business Standard the requisite for online report generation was to ensure all actions by the field officers were done through the system. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is to issue instructions in this regard soon.

"The ultimate objective is to create a single data centre under a single custodian for storing all taxpayer and third-party data. The system will facilitate business intelligence out of processed data and make it available to the actual users on almost a real-time basis," he added.

The plan envisages augmented computational capability and network connectivity for handling huge data volumes. "This would be a uniform holistic rule-based application matrix that can optimally run on state of the art hardware and networks," said the official.

The idea is to integrate all the elements of tax collection through technology, with information seamlessly flowing to the users for informed decision making.

The CBDT MIS advisory panel was constituted in the backdrop of the reiteration by Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance in September 2010 of the urgency for implementation of an action plan in this regard.

The panel was asked to come up with an implementation plan so that work on it could be initiated from the first month of the current financial year.