Bangalore, May 29 (IANS) Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday unveiled the centralised processing centre (CPC) of the income tax department in this tech hub to enable faster refunds to tax payers.
‘Tax payers can expect faster refunds from the income tax department, as the CPC improves the delivery of citizen-centric services in line with the international practices,’ Mukherjee said, dedicating the centre to the nation.
He said the state-of-the-art facility would process all electronic tax returns of the country and physical returns of Karnataka and Goa regions.
As a flagship of the central government’s e-governance project, the CPC, located in Electronic City on Hosur Road, is equipped with a dedicated call centre, where tax payers can enquire about the status of their returns and refunds.
‘The centre will also enable the IT department to cope with the rapid growth in the number of tax payers and consequently lower the volume of work handled by its officials,’ Mukherjee noted.
The remote record storage unit at the centre reduces congestion in the IT offices, as tax payers can call 080-4345-6700 to seek information pertaining to filing their returns or seeking refunds.
Among the advantages of the CPC are priority processing for e-filed returns, accuracy of data transfer, faster processing of returns, systematic and efficient processes, automated printing and mailing services and centralised call centre for grievance resolution.
Going forward, the IT department plans to set up similar CPCs in other cities across the country to replicate the Bangalore model.
Earlier in the day, the finance minister laid the foundation stone for a multi-specialty hospital and a medical college of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) at Gulbarga in north Karnataka.
Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, who hails from the region, was present on the occasion along with Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Rehman Khan and Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily, who also hail from Karnataka.
The healthcare complex, comprising medical, dental and nursing colleges and a 500-bed ESIC hospital, will be built at a cost of Rs.790 crore.
The labour ministry will fund the project, first of its kind in north Karnataka.
