Indian IT major Infosys has received cabinet approval to develop, what is being called, the next-generation income tax filing system, which will cut down the processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and expedite refunds, according to a PTI report. The integrated E-filing and Centralised Processing Centre 2.0 Project of the Income Tax Department will be developed by Infosys at a cost of Rs 4,241.97 crore.

The Cabinet has also sanctioned a consolidated cost of Rs 1,482.44 crore for the existing CPC-ITR 1.0 project up to 2018-19. This is the current system that is being used to process I-T returns and will be used till the new one becomes operational.

According to Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, the project, which he claims will be more tax friendly, will be completed in 18 months, then tested for three months and then launched. Post this, the processing time for income tax will come down to one day.

The idea is to enable end-to-end automation of all the processes within the Income Tax department using innovation in technology and enable voluntary compliance and managing outstanding demand. This, the government believes, will further ensure transparency, accountability and faster processing of returns, ensuring the refunds come to the taxpayer’s bank accounts directly without having to pass through the I-T department.

PTI also quotes Piyush Goyal as saying that tax refunds worth Rs 1.83 lakh crore have been issued so far in the current fiscal.

According to an India Today report, in the current fiscal, the government processed Rs 1.83 lakh crore worth of tax refunds. These refunds are reportedly issued after a lot of scrutiny and if there is a delay, the government is liable to pay interest. These issues are expected to be smoothened out with the new process being put in place.