IT Refund through RTI ?

[paramkrish]

I would like to hear back from you fellows about the procedure that i am trying to adapt to get my old refund from the TN Income Tax. This is for the assessment year 2001-02. This was filed initially in the Nungambakkam IT office. Since i was constantly on out-of-country assignments i lost the original SARAL with the ackn for this particular assessment year and was totally lost on what i should do. Also, we shifted our house as well sometime in 2003. As per my auditor's advice, i obtained a duplicate copy of the FORM16 from my employer for the same financial yr and refiled the Refund by Jan 2005 at the ITO Tambaram as i was told the salaried-letter P moved to this office lately. I waited,waited,waited to hear back something on that but unfortunately no response. I sent a formal letter to the assessment officer through Reg-AD , did not hear back anything. I asked my auditor to personally speak to the Assessment officer. After pestering the Assessment officer for couple times thru my auditor all thru 2006, i realised that i should not wait any longer. I filed my RTI application asking for the status at the PIO, Tambaram by 10th April 2008, but did not hear back anything from them. I filed my First Appeal on 31 May 2008 to the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax and now waiting / hoping to hear back.

Now, this waiting time is really killing me since i m planning to move out of country in few months and there is no one to follow up here on this matter on behalf of me .. I want to settle this down in few weeks.

Kindly let me know if i have done anything wrong or if there is something that i can still do to expedite the process of getting my refund , please suggest.

Refund amount is around 11k and if i add the Interest part that IT has to be given, it will be a huge figure hence i really cant go out of my hands at any case.

What is to be done if i dont hear back for my FAA and also how long i can/should wait after sending the First Appeal ?

This is Indeed an Informative website broadcasting about the power of RTI.

thanks everyone for the good work

[karira]

Just recheck that your initial RTI Application / Fees / etc. was as per the RTI Rules applicable to the central Public Authorities.
These days, the IT department has designated all Assessing Officers as the CPIO.

The FAA has 30 days to reply to your First Appeal. He can take another 15 days extra if he gives the reasons for the extra time in writing.

There is not much you can do except wait till 15 July and a few days more to account for postal delays. If you do not hear from him till then, you can file a Second Appeal under Sec 19(3) cum a Complaint under Sec 18(1)(c). The Second Appeal has to be filed in a specific format with the CIC, New Delhi.

Please visit the "Guide" segment of this forum for further details. You can also access the RTI Act online at www.rtiindia.info

[paramkrish]

Thanks a lot for your advice. I filed my initial RTI with the Rs.10 court fee stamp as this is accepted for TN RTI Rules. I sent the same through the Reg AD. As per the Reg Ack# the initial RTI was received on 16th April as it has the seal and date of the Income Tax office, so i waited till 31st May to make the FAA ( 30 days + 15 days grace period for them to respond ). I would wait till 15th July as you advice and if no reply recd i will make the Second Appeal. Thanks a lot for your assistance.

[jps50]

You should have filed RTI application with Indian Postal Order of Rs.10/- and hence PIO/AA are silent. They do not guide you on correcting defect in applications. IT Dept is under central govt. and hence rules of central govt are applicable. Pl visit my recent blog for refund of Income Tax and refile application accordingly. If you have lost ackt-copy of return, send copy of income tax return or details of date/month of filing, so that they can trace at their end. I think in 2001-02 dept was not fully computerised and hence locating the same would be difficult. You may ask for inspection and help trace out the original return etc. The dept maintains a register containing details of returns filed in chronological order. U can locate your return filing details from this register.

[karira]

Param,

As indicated by jps50, your RTI Application is not correct since the mode of payment of fees is not correct.

Either apply afresh.
OR try to salvage the situation by sending a IPO of RS. 10, to the PIO and refer to your original RTI application (enclose a copy) requesting him to accept the "new mode of payment" and ignore the court fee stamp that you sent earlier.

[paramkrish]

Folks, I refered this RTIIndia.org Title : 'RTI Application/First Appeal/Second Appeal Fees and Mode of Payment'. In that it confirms that Court fee stamp is a valid mode of payment for TN state. I believed that it is applicable for the Income Tax dept as well.
At this juncture, I seem to have received a reply to my FAA yesterday which states that my query is forwarded to the concerned officer to look into it and a unique query/complaint number is given for the same for further follow up. I am not sure if this means that my initial RTI application with the Rs.10 court fee stamp was accepted though i did not send any cash/court fee for the FAA as its not required for the appeals. Anyway, If you guys are 100% sure that this is not a valid mode of payment then i must wait for few weeks and act on sending the letters again with the PO or cash as you advice. thanks for your time and effort in responding to my queries. This website rocks !!

[karira]

Param,

The thread you referred and the information given therein is correct.

However, the Income Tax Department falls under the Ministry of Finance and that is a Public Authority under the Central Government. Therefore, Central RTI Rules apply, irrespective of the fact that you and your IT Ward/Circle are both in Tamil Nadu.

Now that the AA has replied to you, just follow it up for a few weeks and if no response, do as suggested earlier.

[paramkrish]

Sure. Thanks a lot.

[jps50]

I think FAA has treated your appeal as complaint and not first appeal under RTI Act.

[paramkrish]

Guys, I have an update on this. Soon after the FAA was sent, things started moving. I was contacted by the Assessment officer over phone who insisted me to send an Indemnity bond stating that i have never claimed this refund so far which is their usual procedure for such scenarios. He assured once he gets the indemnity bond he will issue the refund cheque but the interest would be from the date the refiling was done(i.e. 2005), not from the date the initial filing was done(i.e. 2001) since i lost the first SARAL and its not possible for them to trace the same to find out when was the first one file. While i am extremely happy to see the progress, i dont know how and why they cant give the interest from the original filing since i am anyway giving them an indemnity bond which states i never claimed it so far. They have to treat it as if they have never issued the refund and have to process the case as fresh, is n't it ?
Also, does anyone know what is their usual rate of Interest for delayed refunds ?

[karira]

That was a fast response and that too by phone !
Never knew that Assessing Officers contacted assesees by phone.

The indemnity bond procedure is correct and the interest payment from 2005 also looks correct since the IT Department would have treated it as "refiling" of returns. That is the date they are treating as date of filing of return, since neither you or the department can prove or confirm otherwise.

I think the interest rate is 1% per month, but not sure.

[nupur_gupta]

Hi,

I haven't got the return for the past 2 years.
In one of the blogs titled - How to File RTI application for delay in Income Tax Refund, it is mentioned that "If you do not get refund as above submit by regd. ad post letter as per annexure A. with its enclosures." and "If no refund or reply is received within 30 days, file RTI application as per annexure B.".
What i need to know is - is the first step required before filing an RTI application, or can I directly file the RTI application without filing an application before that?

[paramkrish]

Sending the RTI letter itself is an application asking for the status of your refund. You send that RTI letter in a plain paper with the questions that you want to ask, and send that as a reg ackn post, keep the copy of the letter, and ackn (once recd from them ) safely as you would need it when u file the first appeal. Please refer the RTI rules as to how you should send such letter to IT dept.

[bahl_ajay]

Originally Posted by nupur_gupta

Hi,
What i need to know is - is the first step required before filing an RTI application, or can I directly file the RTI application without filing an application before that?

Reply to a similar query has already been provided. Anyway there is no need to file another application just go ahead with filing an appliaction under the RTI Act seeking details of your delayed refund.

[jps50]

If U have already followed-up with non-rti letters, you can now file RTI appln as per annesture B and giving reference of your earlier follow-up letters to IT Dept.

[paramkrish]

It would not make any difference even when you quote your earlier letters in your RTI appln as the RTI itself has the power of giving pressure to them to respond irrespective of how many ordinary letters you had sent earlier to that. So, if you think its time to ask for the status of your refund, you can send the RTI rather than the ordinary letters as they dont have the habit of responding to such letters as per my experience.

[jps50]

I have experienced that when you ask questions as posted on my blog "any thing pending with govt" after submitting non-rti application, things start moving as all the errant employees get frightened that departmental enquiry may be initiated. In direct RTI appln U can get the PIO punished, but in the procedure suggested by me, all the errant staff who should have handled your non-rti appln can be put to their own rules by giving RTI punch. It will make them realise that ordinary non-rti applns from citizens need to be attended properly and in time. This will have good impact for future applications also. It is jor ka zatka, dhire se lage!!!

[paramkrish]

Guys, I have just received the refund order at last after pursuing through RTI with the first appeal. (Power of RTI really rocks !!)

While i am extremely glad to have received the refund order just by sending the RTI letters to these lazy folks, i m now concerned of the puzzling interest that came along with the refund order which is mere Rs.1590 for the Amount Rs.11390 for the last 3.5yrs. I spoke to the ITO who justifies that the interest is calculated @ 8% but they have given it for 1-1.5yrs only "for some reasons" which i dont really understand.

My stand is that IT dept had in position of my money for several years where as if they just take the last refiled date into account it comes to 3.5yrs and they should have ideally paid the Interest to that period till date or atleast till March 2008. Even if 8% is considered, it should have been 8x3=24% which comes around 3k so i am paid 50% of that only.

Does anyone know about this ?

For your reference :
Asst year : 2001-02, Lost the original saral
Refiled on Jan2005
Refund Amt Rs. 11390
Matter handled through RTI last few months and got the refund amount as Rs.12980(11390+Interest Rs.1590)

What do u guys say ?

Should i send a letter as a First Appeal asking for more clarification on the interest amount ?

thanks
Param