Disposal of Grievances Appraisal of various

Grievance Redressal
Mechanisms (GRM)
in Income Tax Department
(ITD)
Presentation by PCCIT, Pune

Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM)in ITD

- Centralized Public Grievance Redress and
Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) Grievances
-Aayakar Seva Kendra (ASK) Grievance
Filing of grievance petitions with various I.Tax Authorities
where ASK is operational

-Non-ASK Grievance
Filing of grievance petitions with various I.Tax Authorities
where ASK is not operational

-Ombudsman

CPGRAMS

Its is an online internet based facility for citizens to lodge their

grievances
Web address : http://pgportal.gov.in, www.darpg.nic.in .
Effective tool for monitoring of redress of grievance received
through the Grievance Redress Mechanism, established in
Government of India.
The System networks all Central Ministries / Departments /
Organizations.
On lodging the complaint, a unique registration number is
generated which can be used for further reference and
checking the progress.
Reports can be generated from the system for analyzing
grievance prone areas for taking remedial action and
prevention in future.

CPGRAMS-Log in screen

CPGRAMS- New Grievances

CPGRAMS- Disposed Grievances

CPGRAMS- Input by Citizen

CPGRAMS-Grievance Redressal Process-1/4

CPGRAMS-Grievance Redressal Process-2/4

CPGRAMS-Grievance Redressal
Process-3/4

CPGRAMS-Grievance Redressal Process-4/4

Aayakar Seva Kendra (ASK)

- The ASK Software is installed at the ASK Centers for
centralized receipt & registration of DAK and I.T returns
- ASK provides for distribution of DAK and returns to the
Assessing Officers (AOs) and other offices. The tracking
of DAK resolution is possible through integration with
iTaxnet.
- ASK interface with taxpayers is by Front Desk.
- Back Desk classifies the dak in various categoriesCitizen Charter, Grievances and Others. It is further
subcategorised in 16 subcategories for which time limits
have been set by Citizen Charter. Dak in which the time
limit stipulated in Citizen Charter has been exceeded, is
classified as Grievance.

ASK-Entry Screen for Front Desk

ASK - Home Screen for AO

ASK-Details of Docs on clicking Search

ASK-Various categories in Grievance

ASK-Monitoring by Addl.CsIT to
CBDT

ASK-Grievance-Sub-category-wise

Ombudsman
The Ombudsman has the powers to
receive complaints from taxpayers on any matters viz.;
consider such complaints and facilitate their satisfaction or settlement
by agreement, through conciliation and mediation between the Income
Tax Department and the aggrieved parties or by passing an award in
accordance with the Guidelines;
require the Income Tax Authority complained against or any other
related Income Tax Authority to provide any information or furnish
certified copies of any document relating to the subject matter of the
complaint which is or is alleged to be in its possession; provided that in
the event of failure of such authority to comply with the requisition
without any sufficient cause, the Ombudsman may, if he deems fit, draw
the inference that the information, if provided or copies if furnished,
would be unfavourable to the concerned Income Tax Authority;
suggest remedial measures for redressal of grievances; and
report his findings to the Secretary, Department of Revenue, GOI and
the Chairman CBDT for appropriate action against erring officials;

Model Grievance Redressal Mechanism

Input acceptance
- The taxpayer should be able to give subject and gist of grievance
- All contact details of taxpayer should be captured so that taxpayer can be
contacted by email, phone and by letter.
The input should be in a form which can be forwarded to any persons with ease.
On all the above parameters, CPGRAMS scores over ASK as the taxpayer
writes a gist of grievance. Taxpayer can also upload a document to support the
grievance which is visible to every authority to which the grievance is forwarded
at any point of time. Taxpayers email is captured and hence he can be
contacted by email if any further input is required.
ASK can be improved by
encouraging taxpayers to provide email for faster communication
by allowing various officers to send email to the taxpayer (for seeking any
further clarification/ details) from within the ASK system. Comments sent to the
user should be available both in ASK system and email but taxpayer should be
able to provide input through ASK system.
by scanning of documents submitted by taxpayer which can be stored physically
at one place and scanned documents may be visible to all concerned authorities
as well as to their supervisory authorities.

Acknowledgement & Status Tracking

Taxpayers tend to develop much greater confidence in the
grievance redressal mechanism if they are given a formal
acknowledgement and unique tracking numbers. These may be
used by taxpayers to check status of action taken on their
complaint.
- Both CPGRAMS and ASK give unique tracking number. In
CPGRAMS, taxpayer can check the status of grievance at any point
of time and can give even further comment and input (which are
visible to all the authorities linked with the grievance) till the time
grievance is closed. However, this is not possible in ASK. Taxpayer
has to approach the officer for finding out the status and reasons for
delay. There is no facility to the user to find out the process by which
grievance is being handled. In CPGRAMS, it is possible to view the
process and also comment on the same.

Classification & Forwarding

Smarter systems sort grievances based on their classification, and then redirect each to
their relevant executive(s) instantly.
CPGRAMS has functionality to add categories by every user. But the same have not been
added. This functionality can be added to so that data analysis of grievances in various
categories can be carried out. ASK has 16 subcategories in Citizen Charter & Grievance.
However, the category-wise report is not getting generated properly.
Model systems also keep all the documents in electronic form so that the documents can be
forwarded to the concerned authority instantly. If the system requires input from an expert,
the document in electronic form is easily available to any person linked with that thread.
These systems have all the authorities connected with the system so that any authority can
be asked to view and give comments. CPGRAMS has this functionality but ASK does not
have.
In ASK, grievances can only be transferred to the officers in the same building but letter has
to move physically. There is no system to forward the grievance to a higher authority with
remarks in respect of problems faced. CPGRAMS allows any authority to forward the
grievance to any authority under CBDT (e.g. CPC, DIT Systems, other CIT charges) through
proper channel. This is not possible in ASK. Some grievances required remedial action by
multiple authorities (e.g. one AO has to transfer PAN, one CIT has to approve it after NOC
from another CIT, another AO has to process it, Range head has to approve the refund). It
should also be possible to forward the grievance to multiple authorities for action.

Escalation

In Smart systems, organizations configure typical action time for each type
of complaint, as well as set up the hierarchy for escalation. When an
executive fails to take corrective action in time, the matter is promoted to
the officer next in line in seniority.
By issuing Citizen Charter, ITD has committed to adhere to certain
timelines in taking action in 16 categories of cases. However, both
CPGRAMS and ASK do not escalate the matter to a higher level
automatically if action is not completed in time. Only when an authority
examines the pendency of its subordinates, it comes across the cases
where timely action has not been taken. After classification of grievances
and fixing of timeline for action, it is easily possible to make such
grievances visible in a separate folder (just like New Grievances in
CPGRAMS) to the next higher authority. In CPGRAMS, the grievances
pending for more than 60 days are flagged red. In CPGRAMS, the list of
grievances is available only in respect of grievances pending for more
than 6 months and 1 year. In rest of the categories, only number can be
seen. In ASK, most of the pendency is in the category > 60 days. Further
categories of > 6 moths and > 1 year should be made available in ASK.

Action & its Notification

Smart systems alert the taxpayer immediately upon completion of action,

as marked by the executive in charge. They also analyse whether the
grievance has been fully redressed or there is any variation because of
any reason.
In CPGRAMS, CBDT sends a communication to taxpayer on the system.
However, the same is visible to taxpayer only when he logs in. It will be
better if system based email and sms alerts are issued to the taxpayer
informing him of resolution of grievance and asking him to check the
same on the portal. Same can be done in ASK.
Further, final comments on the grievance should also detail the reasons
for variance from the expected outcome by the taxpayer. e.g. if refund
issued is less than the amount specified by the taxpayer in his
grievances, the reasons for the same should be given. Reasons for delay
in action wherever possible should also be given. System is in place for
the same, however, the authorities need to be trained in giving proper
comments. In CPGRAMS, it is easily possible for supervisory authorities
to monitor and guide the AO as the comments are forwarded through
them.

Verification by Taxpayer

In model systems, taxpayer may be asked whether the corrective

action taken on their grievance satisfies them or is not substantial
enough. Should it not be, the complaint may be marked as pending
again, or be forwarded to a more senior officer in escalated form.
In CPGRAMS, the power of closure is vested with CBDT. Hence,
only properly redressed grievances are closed. However, in ASK, in
absence of monitoring of grievance redressal process by
supervisory authority, the grievances are closed even if not
redressed e.g. transfer to another authority for action, asking the
taxpayer to approach deductor.
In CPGRAMS, if a person is not satisfied with the action taken on
grievance, the feedback is treated as new grievance if the grievance
has been closed by CBDT. However, the better course may be to
revive the grievance as it will enable all authorities to view prior
history of actions taken and problems faced.

Systemic Improvement

A grievance points out to a failure to deliver the desired outcome.

That failure may be instance specific (caused by negligence etc.) or
it may be systemic. Good systems allow for improvement of the
system by learning from the same.
In both CPGRAMS and ASK, there is no mechanism for an authority
to analyse the process of grievance redressal and suggest whether
the failure was instance specific or whether it required system
improvement. The authority settling the grievance should be asked
this feedback at the time of settling the grievance. If systemic failure
is pointed out, the brief description of the modification required in
the system along with the details of authority who can take steps to
resolve it should be given.

Model Grievance Redressal Mechanism

Grievances-Suitably handled by ASK &

CPGRAMS

Grievances-Suitably handled by
Ombudsman

Analysis of grievances in CPGRAMS-1/3

- Analysis of pending grievances in CPGRAMS at Pune shows
following reasons for grievances:No.
1
2
3

Reasons

Category No. of Griev.

TDS
TDS

16
7

4
5
6

Request for migration of PAN

Complaint about Deductor Not updating TDS properly
No credit of TDS given for earlier year leading to non- refund
Appeal effect delay

PAN
TDS
TDS
Appeal

4
4
3
3

Refund shown to be issued but not received by the assessee

Refund

Refund claim very old , no records available with department

Refund

No processing in AST, time barred return

Refund

10

Deductor deducted tax but not paid to the government

Wrong bank a/c no. on cheque
No action on revised return

TDS
Others
Others

2
2
2

11
12

No credit of TDS
Wrong demand uploaded on system leading to refund adj.

Analysis of grievances in CPGRAMS-2/3

No.
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

Reasons

Catego No. of Griev.

ry

No processing by CPC shown as in progress

Interest on refund not received
Non reflection of credit in 26AS, verification of deductors
Change in status of PAN
Non-issue of form-16
Excess credit available in 26AS not pertaining to assessee
Action on TEP
Correspondences on old address
Adv.tax payment wrongly entered by bank as TDS payment

Others
Refund
TDS
PAN
TDS
Others
Others
Others
Challan

2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

No claim of refund in return, revised return time expired

Others

Relief u/s 90/91 delay due to transfer of physical records

Delay in issuing TDS exemption certificate
TDS refund functionality not allowed
Same PAN to different persons

Others
TDS
TDS
PAN

1
1
1
1

Challan correction for TDS on immovable property

Challan

Total

66

Analysis of grievances in CPGRAMS-3/3

Grievance Prevention-Systemic Improvement

GOI Guidelines (2011) for Implementing Sevottam lay down emphasis on making systemic
analysis and changes so that grievances are prevented in future. This step explains how
grievances are analyzed in order to make the GRM efficient as well as effective.
Task 1: Conduct systemic analysis
Retrieve data on all grievances received during the last month or quarter as appropriate
for your Ministry/Department. Using the information on grievance description and
subsequent redress provided to the complainant, identify the root cause behind each
grievance.
Task 2: Identify grievances prone areas and remedial actions
Identify the most frequent types of grievances and the most frequent causes behind the
grievances. Also identify remedial measures on how the Citizen's Charter, the service
delivery system and/or the GRM need/s to be modified in order to prevent the root causes
from recurring.
Task 3: Take follow up action to address grievance prone areas
Assign the remedial actions identified to appropriate personnel depending on the nature of
action which could range from localized process improvements to apex level policy
changes. Appropriate decisions are required for policy level decisions and these are
referred to the competent authority for further action. Localized process improvements are
to be identified and implemented quickly in a time-bound manner with clear responsibilities
assigned to appropriate functionaries.
-

TDS related grievances because of error by deductors

Many errors like wrong PAN, no PAN etc take place because there
is no immediate feedback mechanism for pointing out the error to
deductor right at the time of filling up of TDS return. Provision of
online filing on the line of filing of ITR1 will enable verification of
most of the fields leading to minimum errors.

If this online filing is not feasible because of technical constraints,

deductor should be provided with a detailed feedback in respect of
errors before processing of TDS return. This feedback should also
provided it with names of all parties wherein PAN have been given
by him. This will enable the Deductor to detect its errors and
correct them before processing so that TDS credit entries in the
accounts of TDS deductees are properly made.

TDS related grievances because of error by deductors

If there are errors after processing, the correction process requires

efficient communication with deductor. The same can be provided
on the lines of CPGRAMS wherein TDS Deductor can also be given
a login id and may be invited for taking action of filing correction
return and posting their comments after the same. Statistics in
respect of action taken by deductors can be displayed on the site so
that they are motivated to settle the grievances.

Many of the errors committed by Deductors can be avoided if they

are properly trained to file TDS returns correctly. The deductors can
be explained the process of filing of TDS returns by a mock demo at
the CPC TDS site. A special drive can be launched for training small
deductors and government deductors.

Wrong uploading of demands

Most of the complaints related to processing at CPC are in respect of wrong

uploading of demands. On CPC portal, the taxpayer can file the details of
demand paid, TDS credit not given, submission of Form 16/ 16A etc. and also
submit proof. These details need to be verified by the AO. At present AOs are
not verifying the same. The details of such refunds pending because of nonverification by AO can be displayed at the home screen of the AO and AO be
asked to take action.
A provision may be made in the system to upload all the old orders (orders not
passed on AST) in cases of demands exceeding Rs. 1 lakh. After uploading of
such orders and cross-verification with demands in dossiers, the old demands
not supported by orders can be identified. AOs may be asked to make all out
efforts to trace such orders. But if the same are not traceable, on the certificate
given by AO and Range head, CsIT may be asked to classify that demand as
not enforceable till the time orders are traced and refunds should not be held in
such cases.
At present, AO has to given credit for payments against regular demands. The
same is not given by AO. All such suspense challans of such payments (Minor
head 400) should be reflected at the home screen of AO and and AO be asked
to take action.

Automatic PAN migration to minimise PAN migration

related grievances

Many times, the PAN is lying with the AO who is not having
jurisdiction over the case because of change in address etc. This
comes to notice only when a grievance arises or case is picked up
in scrutiny. Whenever the taxpayer changes address in AIS
database or in return by changing the default address, an effort may
be made to ascertain the current jurisdiction based on the
Taxpayers name, address, status, type of income and employer
data in current return and assessee may be asked to confirm the
same. If the PAN is transferred to correct jurisdiction based on the
latest return, many problems of delay in action both on the side of
Department (non-service of notice to taxpayer) and taxpayer will be
minimised.

Other Suggestions

Statistics in the area of grievance redressal is clearly measurable as

a performance measure. The same also points out to the attitude of
the officer. The same should be directly linked to certain points in
APAR.
If the ASK system can not be immediately improved to incorporate
all the functionalities brought out in the presentation, grievances
involving resolution by multiple authorities may be entered in
CPGRAMS by authority with which it is pending and which wants to
involve other authorities in its resolution.

Thank You
Thank you all for patient hearing