Jul 11, 2007 09:38 PM
1709 Views
(Updated Jul 12, 2007 03:45 PM)
Presto! New ITR series IT Return forms are simpler than Saral; so says FM!
Years ago the Income Tax babus started off with IT forms named Saral(series) to mean simple to handle for end users. After n number of reviews, simplicity is still eluding these morans.
Honourable SOB FM(just to avoid any mis-understanding, SOB is the abbreviation for "Servent Of Bakras" like us!) says this year's ITR series forms are the simplest(that is the ones you have to use it for filing returns for FY2006-07 aka AY2007-08). Good-bye Saral; you are no more the simplest. As usual, the gobble-d-goog has become longer if any, and more pages of'info' asked like AIR extract, voluntary/involuntary stuff & all that garbage introduced - ha! simpler than before. Did our Honourable SOB FM attempt to fill one? By the way, how on earth the'servants in service of people' get to have the kind of power to dish out(notify) new form in May 2007 & expect everyone to understand & comply by lastdate of July 31, 2007? By the way are they not obliged to make any changes, latest by March 31, 2007(and no more!) as one is technically free to submit IT return form on 1 Apr 2007(for Returns of AY2007-08 ie FY2006-07).
Oh Boy! Now I know how our Honourable SOB FM found these forms simple! Year before last, he visited Chennai IT offices on July 31, 2005 to file his IT returns & found that there were no queue & the process was so simple, without having to wait. Why would he not? Being a high security person everything was cleared inclusive of the streaming queues of people trying to meet the CBDT deadline. Never mind the additional nuisance that he became on that day, for aam admi! Very likely, that in exactly the same manner he found the New ITR forms to be simple to fill, without bothering to ask any sample of ordinary mortals. How SOBs can get away with such white lies, thanks to the power vested with them, by themselves! Jai Hind!
Incidentally soon after the fracas of his visit, FM vowed & wished everyone to follow: "why wait till Jul 31? Why not do it on 1st April". Mr FM, ever more in-comprehensible form dished out year after year, by your beloved CBDT is only one of the reason why life as always is most difficult to deal with, for ordinary mortal trying to comply with dictats of all too powerful CBDT. Talk of compliance cost; now I have to run to a CA to translate the form in @#$@!^%@$ to English - judging by the time pressure thrust, the fee demand this year is definitely going to be more than last year. NIIT-TRPS training and such gimmicks of FM are peanuts given the millions having to fill out the new & nastier ITR over the next fortnight.
Make up your mind jokers considering time need by users - dont mis-use your'right' to amend returns-form by making drastic change every-year, year after year & to further insult any intelligence you may concede that ordinary People of India may have, you call the next'innovation' as'even simpler'!
CBDT is designed to be a pain in the backside - sad that they fully achieve their potential by mere form design alone for the majority and not chasing missing tax-due from the few people that account for most of'lost-revenue', thanks to the accepted epheumism that even our FM seems to be happy to use:'rent seeking!', at the drop of a hat, without EVER enumerating what concrete action is being taken against CBDT top-down, to stop endemic corruption & corruption breeding programmes like taking hefty bribe for lucrative postings at the very top levels of CBDT?
PS: I would have loved to post this under'seemingly' more appropriate Ministry of Finance. But then not withstanding the fact that there is a review already from me in that, I wondered if "Ministry of Natural Gas " would be the right choice for the substance of this article & hence I landed here, the closest one!
Tailpiece: With millions of Govt babus at various level swindling the system, atleast in areas that are directly visible to the majority generalpublic, Govt introduced Tatkal Schemes, oficialising blatant bribe taking. While in some instances, this pushed up the cost of bribe per transaction, one must admit in many areas Govt could control & collect for itself the bribe by way of Tatkal Fee, legitimately. Supreme court had clearly pronounced'tax evasion' is a crime where as'tax avoidance' is Ok even if by using the myriad rules of monster(called IT Act 1961) created by CBDT(possibly deliberately so, for them to hide their bribe taking opportunities like'condonement', powers to pass summary orders etc etc intact!). So we used to have smart CA s advising "how to furnish" returns, when the majority illiterate IT return filers(thanks to CBDT's chapter, section, sub-sections, clauses, sub-clauses, amendment & circulars, conflictig exemptions, rebate et al) saving us a few more bucks for a fee. Now Govt is trying to break that too - the new TRPS agents(see the reverse of ITRs) will get 1-3% of the tax realised! A la Tatkal route. Now I dont know if the CA I may approach is working in my interest or Govt interest to increase its revenue not for providing better basic services but for the organised swindlers, who unfortunately constitute the majority head count, of the depts, Parliament & Legislators to siphon & guess what they dont have to pay tax on that!
