New Delhi, April 23: In the last five years, the income tax department has saved a whopping sum of Rs 977.54 crore on postage cost, because of a rise in its online communication with taxpayers. The number of taxpayers communicating through e-mail has doubled since 2013-14.

According to Finance Ministry data, the tax department saved Rs 212.27 crore on postage cost in 2017-18. This more than double the Rs 98.45 crore it saved in 2013-14. During the same period around 14.15 crore e-mails being sent to taxpayers in 2017-18, as compared to 11.82 crore in 2016-17, and 6.56 crore in 2013-14.  The postage cost was determined by considering Rs 15 per post.

There was a sudden increase in online transactions in 2015-16 because of the paperless assessments started by the tax department. The department received around 23.23 mails and saved about Rs 348.55 crore.

The Central Processing Centre (CPC) for Income Tax returns in Bengaluru has sent 73.73 crore digitally signed intimations by emails, 67.96 crore messages and 4.17 crore intimations by speed post across the country. In 2017-18, the CPC processed 5.62 crore tax returns as compared to previous year’s 4.57 crore returns. The centre has also processed 1,25,978 wealth tax returns electronically.

The CPC also enabled taxpayers to log in the e-portal and file their grievances online from the last financial year. The department addressed 5.98 lakh grievances out of the 6.01 lakh grievances it received till December 31, 2016, 6.01

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 23, 2018 05:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).