Central govt award for I-T dept for 96% grievance redressal

Over 20,000 complaints were addressed last year

The Income Tax (I-T) department has won the Central government award for disposing of a record 96 per cent grievances or over 20,000 complaints last year as part of its initiatives to reduce taxpayers' concerns ranging from an issuance of refunds, PAN and others.

The award and certificate for rendering meritorious service in grievance redressal through the centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) was given by the Minister of State for the PMO Jitendra Singh to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy-making body of the I-T department, last week.

A senior official said the department handled a whopping over 20,000 complaints in two-quarters last year, i.e. Between July-September and October-December, with the disposal rate being 96 per cent, making the department the most efficient government organisation in dealing with the heavy volume of grievance redressal.

"The disposal rate between July-September was 9,444 while the corresponding figures for October-December, 2016 was 11,345. The department put in a lot of efforts to ensure that grievance redressal is done as quickly as possible," the official said.

The award recognises outstanding work done by government departments in redressing public grievances and it is reviewed every quarter.

The tax department receives the maximum complaints from the public and taxpayers due to the sheer volume of its interaction with the people.

The department had last year created a special directorate in its establishment called Tax Payer Services (TPS) to effectively deal with such cases.