Jagdish Jha

Tax payers get their PAN early, but not the card. When do you plan to give PAN cards to all applicants? What should be done if there are mistakes in the PAN card?

Shrawan Kumar Debuka, Jugsalai, Jamshedpur

The allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN) had initially slowed down due to assessments, surveys, and enquiries. But there is no delay in allotment now.

Though some applications have been pending due to some delays, we have managed to allot PAN to all the 6,67,975 applicants of the region.

PAN is allotted to applicants in Ranchi within two days. In Jamshedpur and Hazaribagh, PAN allotment might be delayed as they arrive on a weekly basis.

Non-receipt of PAN cards is mainly due to the applicant’s change of address after the filing of the application. Till April 9, we have received in Jharkhand 6,67975 PAN forms and despatched 6,45,275 cards.

Out of the 22,750 cards that are pending, 5,000 are from Jharkhand region while the rest is from Dhanbad, which comes under chief commissioner of income tax, Bihar.

Grievance cells have been opened at the Ranchi chief income tax officer’s office as well as the offices of commissioners of income tax in Hazaribagh and Jamshedpur.

Pending cases should be immediately brought to the notice of the assessing officers/commissioners of income tax or chief commissioner to expedite the allotment. Anyone can come and meet me directly. I will ensure that the PAN is cleared within two days.

Salaried employees are required to pay tax completely. However, the persons who derive income from business and other sources evade tax. What are the measures being adopted by the department to check such unscrupulous professionals.

N.N. Thakur

I admit that some business professionals evade tax. Though the tax percentage for professionals has been brought down from 90 to 30, they do not pay taxes for their total earnings.

If anyone has concrete and specific evidence about tax evasion, he can contact the director general income tax investigations at Patna.

The name of the informant will not be disclosed. The department also provides attractive remuneration for correct information.

No publicity is made by the department regarding various relief programmes that are available to taxpayers to compute their total income. Why?

Rakesh Singh, Harmu, Ranchi

Reliefs available to an assessee differ from case to case. However, for returns there are annexures giving details of various sections of relief.The department publishes booklets on tax information, which could be utilised.

The income tax department imposes fines for late filing of returns, but it is not prompt to refund the excess amount deducted by the assessees. Why?

B.N. Prasad. Kanke Road, Ranchi.

This year, special attention has been taken to issue refunds that have been pending. We were able to issue 65,000 tax refunds of around Rs 60 crore compared to last year’s 42 crore. This is a sign of improvement.