Prompt grievance redressal of taxpayers top priority: CBDT chairman Nitin Gupta

Prompt redressal of taxpayers’ grievances remains the top priority for the tax department, the newly appointed chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Nitin Gupta said on Sunday.

In his message on the occasion of Income Tax Day, he said the tax department has reported the highest ever tax collection of Rs 14.09 lakh crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022 due to streamlining of policies and processes that eased compliance for taxpayers.

“However, we cannot rest on our laurels and need to keep working hard to maintain this momentum,” he said. “Prompt redressal of taxpayers’ grievances in the true spirit of the Taxpayers’ Charter shall remain a top priority area.”

CBDT, the tax administration arm of the government, will continue to engage proactively with the taxpayers and other stakeholders and will use their feedback to keep improving processes.

Gupta said the last few years have witnessed tremendous changes across sectors in the economy including increasing digitization, emergence of new categories of businesses and new asset classes.

“The taxpayers of today desire ease of compliance and prompt redressal of their issues,” he said. “Alive to such changes the department has redesigned its policies and re-engineered its processes with the aim of enhancing taxpayer convenience and infusing greater transparency into its functioning.”

CBDT, he said, is an enabler and service provider.

Stating that the Income Tax Department is not a monolithic entity, he said there are many areas of technical specialisation and differentiation which are being administered by committed cadres of officers and officials.

“Behind those at the front-end dealing with assessments, grievance resolution and taxpayer services, there are dedicated personnel who are responsible for areas like formulation of policies, reskilling, and reorienting to the evolving needs of the stakeholders, maintaining the technical architecture etc,” he said.

“They have been largely instrumental in the change management that the department has been able to successfully achieve over the last few years.”

Gupta, who took over as the new head of CBDT late last month, said the tax department needs to abide by a service-oriented approach, strengthened by rights values and ethics, innovation, collaboration and resilience.

“Let this compass of taxpayer facilitation continue to be the guiding force as we chart a new course in an Atmanirbhar Bharat,” he added.

In his message, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said the government has been at the forefront in initiating reforms in the area of direct taxes. “These include both legislative and administrative reforms.”

The government, he said, has instituted a stable, predictable and equitable tax regime, characterised by policy certainty as well as responsiveness to the needs of the taxpayers.

“Simplification of tax laws, reducing litigation, promoting voluntary compliance by taxpayers and streamlining the departmental processes using technology for enhancing taxpayers’ convenience” are some of the areas of reforms, he said.

While the tax department has taken several measures to curb tax evasion, it has also transformed itself over the years to deliver time-bound services to taxpayers.

“The structural and procedural changes undergone by the department in adoption of a faceless regime have been widely appreciated,” Bajaj added.