Central Processing Centre (CPC) of Income Tax Department, has a Grievance handling team to address queries of taxpayers and the following services are categorised on the basis of nature of queries:
E-Nivaran Grievance
Introduced for handling queries of taxpayers related to Income Tax Return Filing via e-Filing Portal. All the grievances are taken note of and assigned to executives and then categorised and sub-categorised accordingly at CPC for the proper and timely resolution. Once it is approved by ITD officer, e-mail is received by the taxpayer and same along with resolution gets updated on the e-filing portal under the head ‘MY Account’. Rejected cases are sent back for re-analyzing.
Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS)
It provides multiple channels through which taxpayers can get in touch with the department. Any citizen of India can raise their grievance or pleas to the Central Government and State Government- Departments and Ministries. There is a dedicated team under CPC for closely monitoring all CPGRAMS grievances and ensuring timely and accurate disposal of such grievances. Before disposing of any grievance all the resolutions provided by CPGRAMS are reviewed by Designated ITD Officer in the Public Grievance Portal.
Income Tax Business Application (ITBA)
Introduced for all the basic application and work of officers. Assessing Officers raise their enquiries and complaints with respect to CPC processes by lodgings tickets and then, these lodging tickets are routed to their respective teams by the Assessing Officer. Special Portal has been built through which all ITBA Tickets are noted down, accounted and assigned to respective executives. Once tickets are resolved by the executives.
Online Reputation Management (ORM)
Introduced for redressing the grievances posted on the social media by the taxpayers and all the cases are directly monitored by CBDT Income Tax Department. ORM Team is built for assigning cases to the executives for the proper resolution.
E-Mail to CPC
Specific queries from taxpayers or their representatives are handled by using e-mail Id for resolving the grievances.
Grievance Redressal Mechanism under is twofold- where ASK (Aaykar Seva Kendra) is not functional and ASK (Aaykar Seva Kendra) is functional
Where ASK (Aaykar Seva Kendra) is not functional
Grievances arise because of enormous reasons such as delay in transferring files, harassment during a search, delayed hearing etc. Grievance redressal is largely a public relation exercise. In order to provide ease to assesses, Grievance Redressal Mechanism is provided with objectives as given below:
Immediate redressal of public grievances
Protecting the right and dignity of taxpayers
To make sure that higher standards of accountability are maintained by officers and staff of the department. This is done by taking disciplinary actions against erring persons wherever necessary.
Improving system working through a proper feedback loop from the public with respect to the working of the department.
Acquiring better knowledge about officers/ staff and using that knowledge to better serve the public.
Improving vigilance working by using public grievance as input.
Procedure for dealing with Grievance Petition
Upon receipt the original petition is sent to the respective Grievance Cell and allotted a running number to the received grievance. The officer receiving the grievance shall keep a copy of the grievance and act on it. On the basis of action taken, a compliance report has to be sent to the grievance cell as per protocol. All grievances have to be addressed within a reasonable time frame. If it is not possible to help the petitioner, the same should be informed accordingly and timely.
All grievances must be pursued till closure and the redressal officer must report compliance within a specified period of time. The Commissioner/ Chief Commissioner should analyze grievances and take systematic measures to prevent recurrence of grievances. Action may be taken against delinquent officers if necessary.
Maintenance of registers and reports: Every grievance cell and assessing officer has to maintain a grievance register.
Where ASK (Aaykar Seva Kendra) is functional
Where ASK is functional, well-designed software (i) registers the grievances of taxpayers; (ii) allots unique numbers and (iii) transfers the grievances to respective sections for resolution and (iv) keeps track of such grievances. With the software, there is no need to keep manual registers for keeping the record of grievances.
CBDT is committed to meet all standards as below:
Identify complaints prone areas and determine time norms for their redressal
Provide information about the complaint handling process clearly and accessible to all.
Publicize information about the complaint handling process.
Identify complaints uniquely and record necessary information
Scrutinizing complaints individually.
Acknowledge each complaint promptly and give a unique complaint number along with expected redressal time and details of employee for further correspondence.
Investigating complaints thoroughly and effectively resolving it.
Conveying the resolution to the complainant. In case resolution is not satisfactory; justification for decision taken along with alternative recourse shall be communicated to the complainant.
Ombudsmen have been appointed by the Government of India for looking into the grievances of taxpayers if normal delivery mechanism does not respond.