Getting messier

Every year, I deposit advance income tax after making estimates of the sundry items related to the quaint ?income from other sources?. One has the option of avoiding this route by making an estimate and submitting it to one?s employer, ensuring that the correct amount gets deducted from one?s monthly income. I have never taken this route since I feel that I would then lose the flexibility of adjusting my tax payments to what is actually earned.

For the last thirty years or so, this has worked in spite of the shortcomings which we have managed to live with somehow. This year, with the approach of September 15, the date by which the first instalment of the advance income tax had to be deposited, I became anxious and apprehensive since a procedural change had been announced. The internet and the media had warned about the new challan 280 which would have to be correctly filled out at the bank, together with a seven-digit BSR code, the seven-digit challan identification number and the date of payment. I downloaded and printed out this information and marched into the local branch of the State Bank of India, where I have an account for the last thirty years. The manager swiftly called a peon and asked him to take me to another person, who in turn pointed out a lady who should be asked, who again pointed out that I should go to any one of the two windows.

I chose the closest one, stood in the queue for about 20 minutes, and was finally at the counter where I handed the challan and cheque. The man took one look at them and and said brusquely, ?Not here?, pointing to the next counter where the ?case manager? sat. The last handed it back to the man who said, ?I don?t do income tax?. This was found to be an adequate explanation by the case manager, who now asked me to go over to the other window.

But there was a long queue there as well and I did not want to wait another 20 minutes. My protest was heard sympathetically by the case manager and he asked the lady manning this counter to accept my challan and cheque. She accepted the challan and cheque and the queue at her counter did not mind too much because she returned the receipt in less than a minute. I looked at the receipt and saw that there was no BSR code, no challan identification number. The date in the DD/MM/YY format was the only one that I had got. An enquiry revealed that I had another counter to visit. The case manger did try to tell me that the problem was with the challan that I had since the identification number should have come printed on it.

Another counter, another careless stamp which almost obliterated the date and revealed some digits of the BSR code. ?It wasn?t clear whether the first three digits were 0s or 9s?, I said. It turned out that these were 0s. I enquired about the challan identification number. This brought out a rather surly reply. What did I think the big and clear 53 on the stamp was?

But there has to be a 5-digit number, I protested. At this, the person, while looking at someone else?s account on the screen in front, wrote out 053001. But this is six digits, I said; then another stamp and 53001 was written out by hand and I was told that the first 0 has no value. At this stage, there were three stamps, one on top of the other. The overwriting and the numbering does not make sense to me, but I am assured that everything is ?OK?.

I returned to the manager and decided to lecture her on the slovenly and careless attitude of her staff. She did not even make the pretense of listening to me. I suppose, this is the greatest quality required for being appointed manager at SBI.

I am now worried that the records at the tax office will not reflect my deposit. There is no real explanation why I had to undergo the harassment of trying to deposit my advance tax. I do not feel that the bank staff singled me out for special treatment. It was clear that they did not have a clue, and, in spite of announcements in the media, no one had devised the correct rubber stamp where all the information could be filled out in a single ticket window. Just why then has this fresh challan been introduced?

From my experience, I can draw only the following inferences. Next time, send a peon to deposit the tax and ?manage? the situation later. Or forget about paying advance taxes. Or look around for some private sector banks which handle these things better and open accounts there.

Being law-abiding, I choose the last one. Maybe, this is what the mandarins in the finance ministry had in mind ? drive away tax payers from banking with the SBI to some private sector banks. This will only increase the latter?s profitability. No wonder that some such banks have already started advertising in the press about this advantage of banking with them.

But there may be a more sinister design. Notice that we still do not know how this mess of a collection system will work out. If things are not properly recognized by the tax department?s computer system, one may not get credit for making these deposits. How do we rectify such errors?

More important, think about all those who stand to benefit from such confusion. The net result will be that the new scheme will stand discredited. If this has been the objective all along, then I heartily congratulate all those responsible. They could not have done a better a job.