« Top Headlines » Open DEMAT Account in 24 hrs  Tax planning for 2025: How to maximise your savings before March 31 deadline  New income tax bill reaches Parliament: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tables I-T Bill 2025 in Lok Sabha  5 major changes in the last 6 months every taxpayer should know!  Good news for taxpayers: ITR forms updated to allow 87A tax rebate claims, but there's a catch  Top 10 income tax changes from 2024 to look out for while filing ITR in 2025 «  Impact of Budget on foreign firms... Women to gain more if investment planning is sound... » I-T's going to abolish boundaries, get faster March, 04th 2008 After ushering in e-filing, the government is now set to revolutionise processing of returns. Jurisdiction-free processing of income-tax returns could be a reality soon, with the Finance Bill authorising the government to introduce such a scheme. This would speed up the refunds process. Once the jurisdiction-free system is in place, processing of returns could be carried out at centralised designated centres instead of the respective ward where the assessee files his return. The move is aimed at expediting the processing of returns and thereby quickening the issue of refunds. The processing of returns currently takes four months to a year. This is primarily because there is no equitable distribution of the processing work. In some jurisdictions, assessing officers are saddled with 60,000-70,000 returns while in smaller jurisdictions officials have just 5,000 returns. For the purposes of processing of returns under Sub-section (1), the board may make a scheme for centralised processing of returns with a view to expeditiously determining the tax payable by, or the refund due to, the assessee as required under the said sub-section, says the new provision which is proposed to be inserted in the Finance Bill. In fact, the department is carrying out a pilot project for centralised processing in Mumbai. Information about an assessee is sent to the concerned assessing officer in his jurisdiction who then sends an advise of issue of refund to the refund banker. The refund banker issues a refund cheque based on the advise. To facilitate the launch of jurisdiction-free processing, the income-tax department is setting up a National Data Centre that is expected to start functioning soon. All records of assessees would be uploaded on the National Data Centre to facilitate zone-free processing.