Both the Central Board of Director Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) are making optimum use of technology for expeditious disposal of assessment and refunds as well as for addressing the issues relating to custom clearance and facilitating trade among others.
In the Financial Year 2015-16, more than 94% 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. During FY 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 the Financial Year 2014-15 and Rs. 89,664 crore in the Financial Year 2013-14.
Indirect tax collections have also shown turn around during the Financial Year 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. Indirect tax: GDP ratio for the current Financial Year 2016-17 is estimated to be 5.20 per cent.
E-payment of Central Excise and Service Tax refunds and rebates through RTEGS/NEFT has been implemented. 80% of the refund amount granted within 5 days for service exporters. 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% of India’s imports.