NEW DELHI: Seeking to expedite the assessment and refund process as well as resolving issues relating to custom clearance and facilitating trade among others, the government is going all out to make optimum use of technology.
“In the financial year 2015-16, more than 94 per cent of income tax returns were filed online and 4.14 crore returns were processed by the Central Processing Centre (CPC), Bengaluru without any human intervention,” the Finance Ministry said in its statement.
During the financial year 2015-16, more than 2.10 crore refunds amounting to Rs 1,22,425 crore were paid compared to Rs 1,12,188 crore in FY 2014-15 and Rs 89,664 crore in the FY 2013-14.
The indirect tax collections have also shown turnaround during the FY 2015-16 with growth in indirect tax collections, the indirect tax : GDP ratio for FY 2015-16 is about 5.17 per cent as compared to 4.36 per cent for FY 2014-15.
The single window interface for facilitating trade (SWIFT) acts as a single point interface for over 50 offices of six government agencies for clearance of exim goods and reduces documentation and costs, thereby benefitting over 97 per cent of country’s imports.
North Block Clears Govt e-marketplace
The Finance Ministry on Friday gave its green light to creation of ‘Government e-Marketplace’ for online purchase of commonly used goods and services by various central government ministries and departments. As per the guidelines, the GeM may be utilised by government buyers (at their option) for direct online purchases.