At this juncture when Parivartan has collected around 500 grievancespertaining to income tax refunds, the Income Tax Department chooses to lookaway. When contacted, Raj Narain said: ``My grievance against Parivartan isthat it's going public on everything.'' Adding that the department wasdealing with Parivartan separately, the chief commissioner said, ``I don'twant to go public on that.''

To that, V K Goel, project coordinator, Parivartan, replied: ``It's a matterconcerning the public and, therefore, it's being made public.'' According toGoel, the argument put forward by Raj Narain is that people can directly logon to the Income Tax Department website and lodge their complaints, insteadof going via the website launched by Parivartan for this purpose. But is theIncome-Tax Department genuinely interested in listening to the tax-payers'grievances? One is not so sure, going by the list of complaints availablewith Parivartan.

Take, for instance, the case of P J Meshram. Meshram has been a tax-payerfor the last seven years but has never got his refund for any of these yearstill date. Or, that of Sabina Bhasin, who hasn't got her income tax refundfor the year 1997-98 despite several visits to the department. Even worse isthe case of Krishan Lal, who did not receive his refunds for the years1997-98 and 1998-99. On contacting the department, he was told that therefunds had been issued but must have been lost in transit. So, Krishan Lalsubmitted an indemnity bond and a combined cheque was prepared for the twoyears and was placed before the concerned ITO ward 8(6) on December 13,1999. Krishan Lal was shocked when the dealing personnel refused to sign thecheques. The refund is yet to come.

The list of such grievances goes on. When analysed, Parivartan found thatthe problems which tax-payers face fit into various categories. One of themis that the returns are not processed in a chronological order. Sincethere's no order in processing the returns, officials get a lot of leeway.Going by its analysis, Parivartan says that many of the I-T Departmentofficials would process only such returns in which their demands for bribeshave been met or when cases are referred to them by their colleagues,friends or seniors.

Another major problem is that there is no mechanism by which a taxpayercould know the status of his return. Says Goel of Parivartan: ``We receiveda number of cases where the taxpayers have not received their refunds forseveral years in succession because these taxpayers did not visit thedepartment and did not pay the customary bribes.'' Among the common excusesoffered by the department are ``file not traceable'', ``already issued'',``must have got misplaced in post''. Not just that, sometimes the refundcheques arrive after the expiry of the validity period of six months. Andwhen the assessee applies for revalidation of the cheque, the process iscumbersome. But if you go by the book, redressal of all grievances shouldhappen within 30 days. At least the Income Tax Department's Citizen'sCharter promises that. In practice, it's seldom that way, says Parivartan.

To help make the Citizen's Charter a reality, Parivartan has come out with alist of suggestions also. Goel says that the returns should be processed instrict chronological order on first-cum-first-serve basis according to thereturn receipt numbers. Secondly, the return receipt number up to whichrefunds have been issued in each ward/ circle/ special range by the end ofeach month should be displayed on the website of the department and also onthe notice boards of the department. Thirdly, if someone doesn't receive arefund, the matter should be investigated at the level of the commissionerof Income-Tax and disciplinary action should be taken against the concernedofficials within a month. And finally, the tax-payer should be issued refundwithin a week of such representation.

Inspired by N Vittal, the chief vigilance commissioner, and his exposes onth website, Parivartan wanted to do something similar. Since income taxrefund figures as one of the top grievances of the people, Parivartandecided to begin with that. This core group of professionals consisting ofgovernment officials, doctors, chartered accountants, etc, is not lookingfor limelight, insists Goel. The objective is to make things easy for thepeople at large. And yes, after the Income Tax Department, Parivartan isgoing to target the Delhi Vidyut Board. DVB, are you ready?