84 per cent of TDS disputes resolved: Govt in RS

Government has resolved over 80 per cent of disputes relating to TDS deduction through an online system and will carry out changes in TDS limits or slabs once the recommendations of the Easwar Committee are received, Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Replying to a question on tax collection and related issues, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said the government has so far resolved 84 per cent of 49,000 complaints received from the public on TDS (tax deducted at source).
"The Easwar Committee has made many suggestions. One suggestion is also rationalisation of TDS and increasing TDS limits and changing of slabs. When the Easwar Committee report is received by the government, we will make changes and bring our policies accordingly," Sinha said during Question Hour.

A ten-member committee headed by Justice R V Easwar (Retd) has been set up to simplify the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
"We have a whole host of suggestions from the Easwar Committee which we will deal with to further expedite TDS issues," the Minister said.
He said the government has also developed an online portal where all taxpayers having grievances regarding TDS can apply and resolve their complaints.

Sinha admitted that people were suffering mainly of two kinds of complaints - a mismatch in their PAN over TDS and wrong information provided in the challan issued for TDS.

"I can happily say that 84 per cent grievances have been resolved and settled effectively, out of a total of 49,000 complaints received through an online grievance redressal mechanism. We are trying to resolve all other grievances and problems through online filing," he said.
In a written reply, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, there are proposals to change the present provisions of TDS to make them more taxpayer friendly.
He said upto January 31, 2016, the personal Income Tax TDS collections as percentage of gross personal income tax collections is 66.61 per cent.
Gross personal income tax collections from TDS is Rs 1,52,748 crore as against total gross personal income tax collections of Rs 2,29,308 crore in the same perion, he said.

In 2014-15, this was 59.24 per cent, with gross personal income tax collections from TDS at Rs 1,74,106 crore, against total IT collections of Rs 2,93,912 crore.