New Delhi: After a rap from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has asked its officers to give “top priority” to addressing taxpayers’ grievances. In a communication, CBDT chairperson Anita Kapur has asked all principal chief commissioners and the director generals of the income-tax department to put the house in order before the next review by Mr Modi.
“The status of pending public grievances with the income-tax department was reviewed by the Prime Minister on March 25... During the meeting, he expressed dissatisfaction about the delays in responding to public grievances by our officers as well as about the harassment meted out to the taxpayers and the behaviour of our officers,” she wrote.
She said that the deadlines set for this task earlier should be scrupulously followed.According to the guidelines, grievances pending for more than one year have to be resolved by April 30 while those pending for more than two months should be addressed by June 7, 2015. CBDT had during the ‘PRAGATI’ — public gr-ievance redressal initiative of the PM — assured that it will fix the issue before the next review.
“In view of the above assurance and the fact that the Prime Minister will be personally monitoring the status of public grievances on a monthly basis, redressal of public grievances must take utmost priority. If need be, officers may be directed to conduct special drives. Any breach of the timeline will be viewed seriously and accountability will be required,” Ms Kapur said.
