Finance Minister to launch enhanced 'single window' website for taxpayers

New Delhi: Taxpayers will now be able to perform their I-T related works like filing returns or applying for a PAN card from an enhanced single website to be launched tomorrow by Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. An updated version of the existing website of the Income Tax department-- www.incometaxindia.gov.in, will now be acting as a 'single window' for all activities and online services offered by the I-T department, officials said.

The website will be more user-friendly and robust, so that it can handle many hits at a time. The new website will have enhanced features and will be more customer friendly. The taxpayers will be able to file their I-T returns online and even apply for a PAN from this portal which was till now hosted on a different official web address of the department.

"The spruced up website is more robust and can handle the pressure of numerous hits at one time," an official said. It will also be more colourful with different icons marking separate activities as compared to the earlier version, which only had two dominant shades of dark blue and white.

The website will also allow taxpayers to know about the I-T Act, various notices and circulars being issued from time to time and regular developments in the department. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had envisaged such a website in its ambitious 'Vision 2020' document prepared a few years back and the new website will be a culmination of efforts to give better services to taxpayers,they said. Jaitley will launch the enhanced portal tomorrow by the click of a button from his office in North Block here in the presence of senior officials of CBDT and I-T department.