Incometax refund to be completely through emode

            Indian Finance ministry is preparing a detailed plan to migrate the income tax refunds complete to the eMode.

            If the Indian Finance ministry has its way, each IT PAN (Permanent Account Number), will be linked to a bank account. Such a linkage will be helpful for eRefund of the Income Tax.

            However as on date, the above idea has not received RBI clearance. , RBI is not comfortable with the idea of making PAN linkage mandatory for electronic transfer of all income tax refunds.

 100 per cent ECS (electronic clearance service) is possible only when IT Department has both the PAN and the Bank Account Number.

            The tax department was not asking RBI to make PAN mandatory for all bank accounts, said an official, "We are concerned with only those 35 million bank account holders who have a PAN card. So it should not be a problem."

 Refunds of Rs.70,000 crore have been given so far this year. Last year, refunds stood at Rs.95,000 crore. In 2009-10 and 2010-11, refunds of about Rs.57,000 crore and Rs.73,000 crore, respectively, were issued.

 In the present mode, IT refunds are provided through the refund banker scheme, launched in 2007, to non-corporate taxpayers assessed all over India. The State Bank of India (SBI) is the refund banker to the I-T department.

            Refunds are generated in two modes - ECS and paper. If the taxpayer has selected mode of refund as ECS at the time of submission of income return, his / her bank account number and MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) code of bank branch and communication address are mandatory.

            For taxpayers who have not opted for ECS, refund will be disbursed by cheque or demand draft. For generation of refund through paper cheque, correct address is mandatory. In the ECS mode, refunds are credited to the taxpayer's bank account within 24 hours of receiving intimation from the tax department, while for paper refunds the cheque is dispatched within three days.

            In Budget 2013-14, Finance Minister P Chidambaram extended the refund banker system to refunds of more than Rs.50,000.