The Central Board of Direct Taxes hopes to do away with filing tax returns in the paper format from April 1 next year. Instead, assessees across the country would be able to file their returns electronically.

Announcing this, CBDT chairman P L Singh said this would be contingent on the use of digital signatures becoming widespread and the income-tax department putting in place its online tax application system.

He said the ongoing agitation by IT officers against outsourcing of permanent account number-related work was not aimed at disrupting the reforms in the department.

Singh also said UTI-ISL had issued 83,000 PAN cards from July 1, when the IT department had outsourced the facility to the company, compared with 4,38,000 applications received by it till the middle of this month.

He said while the company was committed to providing the cards within 15 days of receiving the applications, a problem in the main computer of the IT department in Mumbai had delayed the process.

IT department member D Swaroop said that there was no harm in UTI-ISL having outsourced the job of receiving PAN application forms to other companies.

The IT department has launched electronic filing of tax returns in a limited way in seven major cities from this year to make the process hassle-free for assessees besides improving administrative efficiency.

Singh told reporters that this facility would be available in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

To start with, electronic filing can be done through select banks in these seven cities. The banks are HDFC Bank, UTI Bank, IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Bharat Overseas Bank.

The facility of electronic filing of returns would be available at six bank branches in Delhi, five in Mumbai, four each in Chennai and Bangalore and three each in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, he said.

Initially, the electronic filing was being done through intermediary banks, as individuals would have to secure digital signature first for filing of electronic returns directly.

Necessary notification for this purpose has been issued, he said, adding the banks would charge Rs 100-400 for filing of returns per individual, depending upon the services they provide.