INCOME TAX PAYERS - Grievance Redressal Mechanism
Income-tax Department is a large department dealing with the public. In such a department, there are bound to be occasions when the tax payers are aggrieved by the actions or defaults of the officers of the Department. What do they do they approach for redressal of their grievances?
There is, of course, the elaborate appellate machinery of the Department. If a tax payer is aggrieved by an order of the assessing officer, he can go in appeal to the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or commissioner (Appeals). If he is not satisfied, he can go to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and thereafter to the High Court and to the Supreme Court. He can also file a revision petition before the Commissioner, The appellate machinery has stood the test of time and has been quite successful in redressing the grievances of the tax payers arising out of the order of the assessing officers.
But there is a different class of grievances which cannot be redressed by the appellate authorities. These grievances arise out of the actions or defaults of the assessing officers which are of administrative nature. For example, what is the remedy if after the tax payer wins an appeal the assessing officer delays in giving effect to the appellate order; or the assessing officer delays in giving a refund due to the tax payer after processing the return, or demand payment of tax which has already been paid by the tax payer without updating his records, or delays in issuing a tax clearance certificate; or a search or survey party causes harassment to the tax payer by acting in a manner not authorized by law? There may be many such instances where the dispute is not regarding the quantum of liability. Yet the tax payer has a grievance. It is this second class of grievances which will be discussed here. When we speak of public grievances we ordinarily refer to this second class of grievances.
What does a tax payer do to get this type of grievances redressed? It is too simplistic to advise him to complain to the next higher officer. This officer may not be always free to attend to the problems of the aggrieved tax payer. In order to attend to such grievances of the tax payers the Income-tax Department has set up Grievance Cells at different levels.
The Income-tax Department has a hierarchy of Grievance Cell as given below :
(i) Central Grievance Cell under Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes. This cell functions directly under an officer of the rank of a Director to the Government called the Director of Grievances.
(ii) Regional Grievance Cell under each Chief Commissioner/ Director General of Income-tax. In places like Kolkata and Mumbai where there is more than on Chief Commissioner, the Regional Grievance Cell functions under the Chief Commissioner-II.
(iii) Grievance Cell with outstation Commissioners and Directors of Income-tax. In place where no Chief Commissioner of Director General is posted, a Grievance Cell functions under the Commissioner of Income-tax or Director of Income-tax. For instance while there is a Grievance Cell under the Commissioner of Income-tax, Orissa, a Commissioner of Income-tax of Mumbai does not have a Grievance Cell under him. The tax payers at Mumbai would directly approach the Regional Grievance Cell under Chief Commissioner-II Mumbai.
Suitable senior officers have been posted directly in charge of the Regional and outstation Grievance Cells.
What the taxpayer should do if he has a Grievance?
He should send an application in plain paper in duplicate mentioning his grievance in brief first to the outstation Grievance Cell wherever such a cell exists. Since such a Grievance Cell is under a Commissioner or Director of Income-tax, it is likely that the grievance would be redressed quickly there itself. However, if the grievance is not redressed within one month, he may make an application in duplicate to the Regional Grievance Cell. If he fails to get it redressed there also within two months he may send an application in duplicate to the Central Grievance Cell.
As has been mentioned earlier in places where a Chief Commissioner or Director General is posted, the Commissioners/ Directors do not have separate Grievance Cells under them. In such places the application should be made directly to the Regional Grievance Cell under the Chief Commissioner/Director General.
What the grievance cell does after receiving the grievance application?
After receiving the grievance application, the Grievance Cell gets in touch with the concerned assessing officer or any other officer to whom the grievance relates through the Commissioner/Director and ensures quick redressal of the grievance. If the claim made in the grievance application cannot be accepted, the tax payer is informed accordingly.
When a grievance application is filed, it is acknowledged and a running number is given to it. The grievance is kept pending with the Grievance Cell till it is redressed.
What the tax payer should do in order to get quick benefit from the grievance cell?
He must be sure that it is a grievance falling under the scope of the Grievance Cell. The real test is to check whether there is any provision of appeal to the appellate authorities under the law against the action causing the grievance. In that case the proper course is to go in appeal. Grievance Cells do not take up cases where the remedy lies in appeal. So the tax payer would be simply wasting his time if he approaches the Grievance Cells in such cases.
The grievance application should be brief and to the point. The officers handling grievance applications are experienced offices who can easily comprehend the grievance without any long discussion. Long applications containing inessential items not only consume the precious time of the officer, but also digress attention from the main issue. Brevity is the Soul of Wit.
Enclosures should be avoided unless absolutely essential for appreciating the grievance.
The application should clearly mention the ward/circle/special rang where the tax payer is assessed and the commissioner’s charge.
The applications should be addressed direct to the Grievance Cell. Often tax payers address a letter to a certain authority and send copies to other authorities and the Grievance Cell. Grievance Cell does not act on the basis of these copies. The reason is that the addressee officer would be taking action on the application and if the Grievance Cell also acts on the copy of the same application there would be duplication of work.
The applicant should give his name and address so that the Grievance Cell can make further communication with him.
Applications should be made to the correct Grievance Cell for quick redressal of the grievance. The following table will help the tax payers to locate the Grievance Cell where they should apply at the first instance.
| Grievance pertaining to the jurisdiction of | Appropriate Grievance Cell | ||
| I. | a. | Grievance pertaining to the jurisdiction of Agra, Allahabad, Amritsar, Baroda, Coimbatore, Guntur, Jabalpur, Jalandhar, Jodhpur, Kolhapur, Madurai, Meerut, Nagpur, Nasik, Orissa, Rajkot, Ranchi, Rohtak, Shillong, Surat, Trivandrum, Vishakhapatnam. | Grievance Cell of the respective Commissioner |
| b. | Commissioners of Income-tax (Central) Ludhiana, Kanpur, Chennai. | Grievance Cells of the respective Commissioners (Central) | |
| c. | Directors of Income-tax (Inv.) Bangalore, Chandighar, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Pune | Grievance Cells of the respective Directors of Income-tax (Inv.) | |
| d. | Directors of Income-tax (Exemptions) Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai. | Grievance Cell of the respective Director of Income-tax (Exemptions) | |
| II. | a. | All Commissioners of Income-tax (Excluding Central Charges) Bangalore, Bhopal, Cochin, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Patna, Patiala, Pune | Regional Grievance Cells of the respective Chief Commissioners at these places. |
| b. | All Commissioner of Income-tax (excluding central charges) Ahmedabad, Mumbai, city, Kolkota, Delhi, Chennai. | Regional Grievance Cells of the respective Chief Commissiones-II | |
| c. | All Commissioners of Income-tax (Central) Delhi, Bangalore | Regional Grievance Cells of the Directors General (Investigation) at Delhi and Bangalore respectively. | |
| d. | Commissioner of Income-tax (Central) Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata | Regional Grievance Cells of the respective Directors General of Income-tax (Inv.) at these places. | |
| e. | Directors of Income-tax (Inv.) Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkota, Delhi, Chennai. | Regional Grievance Cells of the respective Directors General of Income-tax (Inv.) at these places. | |
| f. | Director of Income-tax (Exemptions) Kolkota | Regional Grievance Cell of the Director General of Income-tax (Exemptions), Kolkota | |
| g. | Any Grievance not covered above | Regional Grievance Cells of the respective Chief Commissioners and Directors General. Facilitation counters in each Income-tax office also lodge grievance and ensure timely redressal. |
Note your grievance cell
It would be noticed that many Regional Grievance Cells receive grievance applications at the first instance.
It the grievance is not redressed by the Grievance Cell under the Commissioner/Director of Income-tax the tax payer may apply to the Regional Grievance Cell. The appropriate Regional Grievance Cell in such a case is the Regional Grievance Cell functioning under the Chief
If the grievance is not redressed by the Regional Grievance Cell, application may be made to the Central Grievance Cell in the following address:-
Director of Grievances,
Central Board of Direct Taxes,
Room No. 155A
North Block, Central Secretariat,
New Delhi – 110 001.
Facilitation Counters
Facilitation Counters have recently been opened in each Income-tax office where all material relating to Income-tax and minor clarifications are made available. Assessees can lodge their complaints/grievances at these counters also which would be attended to within a short time.
Each Officer is A Grievance Officer
Apart from the institution of Grievance Cells explained herein it has also been provided that every Wednesday be observed as a meetingless day. During that day each officer is available for three hours to receive and hear the grievances of the tax payers.
The tax payers may avail of this facility also.
