New Common Income Tax Return set to roll out Soon, hints MoS for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in Lok Sabha

The Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary hinted at the release of the new Common Income Tax Returns ( CTR ), in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

The Government has taken a number of measures in recent years to maintain the continuity and stability of taxation, further simplify and rationalize various provisions to reduce the compliance burden, promote the entrepreneurial spirit and provide tax relief to citizens. The Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary further stated.

The proposed draft ITR takes a relook at the return filing system in tandem with international best practices. It proposes to introduce a common ITR by merging all the existing returns of income except ITR-7. However, the current ITR-1 and ITR-4 will continue. This will give an option to such taxpayers to file the return either in the existing form (ITR-1 or ITR-4) or the proposed common Income Tax Returns, at their convenience.

Further, the Minister stated that the Common Income Tax Return (CTR) has been proposed as a common return form for all persons except Trusts. The proposed Return aims to bring ease of filing returns and reduce the time for filing the ITR by individuals and non-business-type taxpayers considerably.

The taxpayers will not be required to see the schedules that do not apply to them. Schedules have been designed smartly in a user-friendly manner with a better arrangement, logical flow, and with increased scope of pre-filling.

It will also facilitate the proper reconciliation of third-party data available with the Income-tax Department vis a vis the data to be reported in the ITR to reduce the compliance burden on the taxpayers. Draft of the CTR was uploaded in the public domain inviting comments from all stakeholders.

He went on to highlight the Grievance Redressal Mechanisms of the Income Tax Department, namely, e-Nivaran module on e-filing portal, High Pitched Assessment committees in each Pr. CCIT charge, Taxpayer Charter Cells (TPCC) in each Pr. CCIT charge and CPGRAM on the DARPG portal.

The Minister Pankaj Chaudhary in Lok Sabha, further stated that strengthening the grievance redressal mechanism is an ongoing and continuous process. With enhanced monitoring and reducing the response time to the various grievances filed by taxpayers, an impetus has been given in the various grievance redressal mechanisms. The increased digitalisation of procedures under the Act has also contributed to the improvement in the disposal of taxpayer grievances, the Minister stated.

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