Union Budget on IT capacity building for e-governance

While not daring to venture into governance deficit or superfluousness issue, I applaud the Indian Finance Minister’s emphasis on Unique Identity scheme and enhancement of IT infrastructure for better delivery of services. While no major benefit has been given to IT sector in this year’s Union budget, an outlay of Rs.3000 Million for capacity building in the field of e-stamping, which will take computerization to rural pockets of India. Mr. Mukherjee said, “robust IT infrastructure is the backbone of an efficient tax administration”.

He said the IT systems will be used by the Central Boards of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Excise and Customs (CBEC) widely, including:

- The on-line preparation and e-filing of income tax returns, e-payment of taxes through 32 agency banks, facility for electronic clearing of refunds directly in taxpayers' bank accounts and electronic filing of tax returns.

- The Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) at Bangalore has increased its daily processing capacity from 20,000 to 1.5 lakh returns in 2010-11. Two more CPCs will become operational in Manesar and Pune by May and a fourth one will come up in Kolkata after a few months.

- With the completion of its IT Consolidation Project, CBEC can now centrally host its key applications in customs, central excise and service tax.

Saying that 'the electronic filing of tax deduction at source (TDS) statements has stabilized', he said the board shall soon notify a category of salaried taxpayers who will not be required to file a return of income.

He said the CBDT will provide a separate web-based facility to enable a direct, stand-alone interface for taxpayers with the income tax department so that they can report and track the resolution of their refunds and credit for prepaid taxes.

He said the already announced projects of computerization of commercial taxes in states will allow states to align with the roll out of general sales tax (GST). Several states have already started accepting electronic tax returns and issuing forms required for inter-state trade,

Mr, Mukherjee said, from October, one million Aaadhaar numbers under the Unique Identity (UID) Mission, will be generated daily. So far, 20 lakh Aadhaar numbers have been generated.

All these efforts will be taken in the direction of e-governance, delivery of commercial tax collection service, but my takeaway is clear cut that it will take computerization down to rural pockets of India. It will also lead to capital formation in IT sector in rural India, albeit at smaller level, which unfortunately has not been part of India’s IT success story so far. These small but concurrent steps will definitely not only go a long way in bridging the gap between two different India, but will make it more strong a country and of course the market.

Most important takeaway for me, more the merrier. More people on internet means bigger scope for social media. Yummy.....