IT Ombudsman disposes of nearly 90% of grievances in six mon

 Within six months of assuming office, the Income Tax Ombudsman in Chennai has disposed of nearly 90 per cent of tax payer’s grievances.

G. Muthuramakrishnan, the second Income Tax Ombudsman, feels he is getting less number of complaints as compared to his counterparts in insurance, housing and banking sectors, due to lack of awareness about his department. On an average, Ombudsman gets three complaints a day, while four are disposed off.

“As many as 245 cases were pending as on December 15, 2008. Since then, I have received 315 applications, of which 492 cases have been sorted out. Of the 68 pending cases as of June 2009, about 10 relates to the previous year. This could not be sorted out as the tax payers have not furnished their present postal address or contact numbers,” he told The Hindu.

According to him, most of the cases related to non-receipt of refunds for assessment year 2007-2008 and preceding years.

In many cases, it was found that the relevant original returns filed by the tax payers were not readily available with the assessing officers currently having jurisdiction over the cases. The cases were solved by obtaining duplicate returns.

Urging the tax payers to approach the concerned superior officer to get their complaints redressed, the IT Ombudsman said that assessing officers were quick in responding to the queries from them and in settling the grievances.

“The salaried class always has a grudge against the Income Tax department and my job is to clear all the pending genuine cases within a reasonable time. We do not lay emphasis on the sum due to the complainant. We have cleared cases pending from Rs.700 to Rs.1 crore,” he said. So far, the Ombudsman has received nearly 30 complaints through e-mail. Aggrieved persons can file the complaints through e-mail ombudsman_it@dataone.in. He also requested the complainants to furnish their full postal address and telephone numbers for speedy redress.