IT Refunds on doorstep of assessee in five months

New Delhi, July 17 (UNI) Income tax refunds will now be on the doorstep of assessee within five months.

The income tax department today said after processing returns in a period of four months, the refund orders would be made available to assessee in another month's time. A month is required for the manual operations involved in dispatching and meeting other administrative requirements for the purpose.

Newly appointed spokesperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) A K Sinha said here today.

Mr Sinha, however, said during the processing period the department would be able to tally the returns with the Annual Information Reports of individual assessee. ''Mismatches will be taken into account'', he said.

''You have to be patient, but the refund will now be on your doorsteps,'' Mr Sinha quipped.

He said the process of sending refunds into the Bank accounts of assessee was on in certain places, but the ultimate aim of the CBDT is to send the refunds from all centres through the Electronic Clearing System (ECS).

The basic philosophy of the department is ''trust the assessee'' Mr Sinha said adding all efforts would be made to avoid harassment to them.

He said the position regarding e-filing of returns was the same as last year-- e-filing will pertain only to cases of Tax Deducted at Source(TDS).

Mr Sinha made an appeal to the public to file their returns by the due date, ie July 31, 2006. He said the normal behaviour of public is to wait for the last days to file their returns which results in considerable rush at the Return counters.

He said people should not wait till the last days to file their returns to avoid harasssment, but added that help desks have been set up to assist assessee in all possible ways.

UNI GS MIR HT1957