New computerised income tax payment facility in Trichy

Union minister of state for finance S S Palanimanickam on Tuesday inaugurated the Aayakar Seva Kendra (ASK centre) at the income tax (I-T) department at Cantonment in Trichy.

ASK was set up in select Indian cities last year, and there are about 60-odd such centres in the country. The initiative was part of a modernisation programme whereby people from any jurisdiction can file their returns at a one-stop computerised facility without going to the section clerks.

Chennai and Coimbatore had the facility in Tamil Nadu until now, and from today Trichy has been added to the ayakar seva map. Another ASK will be opened in Salem on Wednesday and on Thursday it will be inaugurated in Madurai.

Palanimanickam said that since the country had a larger percentage of first-time entrepreneurs, they would not have the requisite experience in filing their I-T returns and had to depend on their auditors who might manipulate them to their advantage. As such, I-T officers should guide first time entrepreneurs and businessmen on the right path, and ASK must play a pivotal role in achieving that. The minister said despite the slowdown of the economy, Chennai region had collected 25% more tax than the target.

Chief commissioner of I-T, Chennai, G C Jain, said that among the four metropolitan cities, Chennai topped the list by collecting Rs 34,586 crore which was Rs 1,545 crore more than the target in the last fiscal. Moreover, in the current fiscal, more than a million taxpayers would file their returns online, he added.

ASK is a single-window system for taxpayers for delivery of services in a time-bound manner as articulated in the IT department's 2007 Citizen's Charter. All applications including I-T returns would be processed at the centre and system-generated acknowledgments would be issued for easy monitoring of applications, said Dr Sudha Sharma, zonal member of CBDT, New Dehi