(a) whether the Government has set up a dedicated structure for delivery and monitoring of tax payer services;
(b) if so, the details thereof; and
(c) the further steps taken/being taken by the Government to address taxpayer grievances in a time bound manner?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(SHRI JAYANT SINHA)
(a) & (b) Yes Sir. Government has set up a dedicated structure for delivery and monitoring of
taxpayer services in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), its attached Directorates and field
offices of Income Tax Department. Two separate Directorates of Tax Payer Services (TPS) have
been created under the administrative control of Principal Director General of Income Tax
(Administration & Tax Payer Services) for this purpose. In CBDT, Member (Revenue) has been
made responsible for overseeing the delivery and monitoring of taxpayer services. The field offices
of the Income Tax Department have also been directed to create similar dedicated structure and
mechanism for Tax Payer Services.
(c) 250 Aaykar Seva Kendras (ASKs) have been set up through-out the country to function as
single window units for redressal of taxpayer grievances in a time-bound manner. Grievance
redressal has been made a key result area of the functioning of the Income Tax Department and
instructions have been issued to field offices to accord utmost priority to this area of work. The
performance in the area of grievance redressal is periodically reviewed. Special efforts are being made to promptly dispose of older grievances registered on Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) as a result of which, the pendency of grievances which are more than one year old has been reduced from 1,910 as on 25.03.2015 to only 02 as on 25.04.2016. Significant reduction in pendency has also been achieved in respect of grievances which are over six months old and grievances of other categories.
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