Redress grievances in 2 months, CBDT tells I-T dept

New Delhi, Feb 7: Terming as “unsatisfactory” the current pace of taxpayers' grievance redressal process, the CBDT has asked the Income Tax department to resolve these complaints within a maximum period of two months.

In a urgent missive to all regional heads of department, Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairperson Atulesh Jindal has sought a quick resolution of these complaints as it is a key area being monitored by the government, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulling up the department on this front during a meeting last year.

Recently, similar directives were issued to the Customs and Central Excise departments working un- der the Central Board of Excise and Customs. The CBDT boss has asked the tax department officials to take up this job “on priority” and report back on its compliance.

While the total number of complaints pending in the I-T department are about 7,800, 81 are pending for more than one year and 1,696 are pending for more than six months.

“In spite of repeated instructions from the Board from time to time, a large number of grievances have not been disposed of withing the prescribed timeline of 60 days from the date of their receipt,” Jindal wrote in a recent communication to the principal chief commissioners of the department across the country. PTI