Income Tax Refund

By Shantanu -
We got our income tax refund, but a substantial amount was deducted from the original claim of Rs 40000/-. Only Rs 35000/- was refunded and that too including interests. That means about Rs 7000/- was withheld by income tax office – why, nobody knows. It took a long time and two visits to the Income tax office to get the refund. The refund for assessment year 2009-2010 was provided in October 1 2010, almost 14 months after filing return. The same income tax office which levies a high penalty on the non-payment of income tax within stipulated time, payed a paltry and miserly interest. We tried all options – calling up the IT ombudsmen in Hyderabad, filing RTI and filing first appeal after RTI was not responded.
The IT ombudsmen was at first sympathetic and became very formal on the second occasion. The IT assessment officer Range 12 was at first apologetic and on our second visit became very non-chalant, as if she was not born for handling such petty issues. The Right to Information was never responded (strange are the ways of Government offices). The first appeal has not been responded yet(it’s been almost 30 days).
There was one helpful IT chap who helped us in checking the refund status in the system. Bless him. Such guys are rare in Government offices but by sheer luck if you come across one of such rarer species your jobs get half done.
Anyway, good part is we got our refund. It takes a lot of determination to get things done with Indian bureaucracy and most of them would like to remain in the self imposed cocoon and would think it rather demeaning to respond to ordinary mortals. But it is possible and there are few good men (and women) out there.
There is another side to this story. While we got the refund, we got a whooping RS 7000 less, without any explanation. When enquired, the response from ITO was "send us query, we'll get back." But she has not got back in two months. Onus is on us, the poor taxpayers, to get their refund, follow up with ITO and get IT related issues cleared. Ki bichitro ei desh!

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