I have had a very bad experience with the Insurance Ombudsman when I had referred a problem with a Health Insurance Reimbursement to him. These ombudsman are actually retired Officials from the same field- in my case a retired Chairman of an Insurance co. You cannot expect them, generally, to give a ruling against their own 'departments'; and so getting justice from this source is ruled out.
My father who is a senior citizen had some income from PO Deposits on whose interest TDS was deducted wrongly by the PO. He has applied for the refund after submitting his IT returns about 3 or 4 years ago, and is still awaiting the refund. Such is the status of the IT Dept. I don't think that the FINANCE MINISTER and the ministry does not know that we have to pay 10 % of the refund amount to get the refund, whether the refund comes from a centralised office or even from Heaven.
Dear Friends, Experiences like this may be a small percentage of total tax returns. I empathise with the pain our friend is going through but in my case I am really happy that my refunds are bang on time and the cheaque comes promptly to my home. This has been happening since last 2 yrs. I definately feel the department is definately become efficient. I do agree that in case of any grievances there is no redressal mechanism. In case of my company refund also the money came promplty but due to mistake of assessing officer some amount is yet to be refunded which we are following up. Mr.Chidambaram the progress is good but more needs to be done.
Re: Tax Refunds
by David Coulthard on Mar 09, 2013 08:08 PM
I second you. I was repaid 12 thousand rupees (caused by our company accountant with wrong LTA), AND I got the refund promptly: no questions asked. IT dept is a lot better than others, believe me. I have been filing taxes for 12 years now. After getting online, it is even more convenient. And I did get my refund when I had filed my returns online
No matter what Chida says in his budget speech, the first thing he has to do is correct the IT department. Looks like those babus have no responsibly or accountability. My 2010-2011 tax return is yet to be refunded. I have run pillar to post on this but without any avail. Each babu blames another babu for this..No accountability by anybody. They must punish all babus who calculate wrong taxes or ask for bribe or disown accountability.
My experience is the same...except that I didn't get my refund either! Willing to join up for the writ petition because the dept is entirely insensitive to taxpayers' woes irrespective of what the minister and others speak in public.
