Tax payer woes ...

Of late some of my friends (including myself) have got letters from the IT department to submit the original Form 16 document in order to process the returns. The first question that arises here is that why didn't the official accepting the SARAL form (the form that we fill towards filing our tax returns) ask us to submit the original document the very day when we submit the SARAL ? I am not expecting an answer here, though ! Let me continue ...

I had submitted the original Form 16 document a couple of months ago (I remember that it was in Feb,2008 and it is May, 2008 now). I approached the official on behalf of whom I got the letter. I was asked to wait for sometime till "someone" turns up. What the hell? I am talking to the official who sent me the letter and that official is waiting for someone else !! Now who is that "someone" - that "someone" is a junior guy who takes care of preparing the cheques, gets them signed by the officer and dispatches them. So this "someone" is the "key" guy infact. I gave my document to this "key" guy and the guy assured that the cheque will be mailed to my address at the earliest. Even though the turn around time is high, I returned back with an amount of satisfaction and a hope that I will get my money back in a week or so..

I waited for a month and unfortunately I didn't receive the cheque yet, so I went to the IT office again and this time, I tried contacting the "key" guy directly. Now the "key" guy tells me that I can go and enquire the status of my returns at a counter downstairs. Surprisingly, there is no banner or atleast a sign board to let people know that there is a counter just at the entrance where people can check the status of their IT returns !! Well, I had discovered that counter successfully and asked for the status and the rep. over there told me that I need to go back to the same official again as there is no track of my returns in the system :-(

I went straight to the "key" guy and told him the story that I was told downstairs. The "key" guy went into an office, searched through some bundles and came back to me saying that my returns document got misplaced and that he needs time to get hold of the document and process my returns !!

I waited for a month again and this time, I touched the enquiry counter downstairs. To my bad luck, I was told that the server is down and that I can call up 040-23234031 (xtn: 774) and get the status of my returns. I got pissed off and went to the "key" guy again. The guy told me that he had sent off 1000s of cheques last week and he hopes that he had dispatched my cheque too !!

The reason why I have blogged about my experience is because I hope that some of my friends might have gone through such similar situations and here is what I would like to point out hoping that it improves the way IT department works:

1. Let people know about the "Help desk" and the related telephone numbers
2. Avoid middle-men and let the officials deal with the public
3. Advertise the url / suggestion box where people can log complaints/suggestions
   

I hope that some of the information in this post might be helpful and that you avoid running to Ayakar bhavan in hot sun :-)