125

Journal of E-Governance 36 (2013) 125135

DOI 10.3233/GOV-130348
IOS Press

Articles

E-filing system for tax returns and forms:

Landmark e-governance initiative by the
government of India
Harjit Singha, and Hardeep Singhb
a

Aligarh Muslim University, India

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India

Abstract. This paper gives a brief history and overview of the e-Filing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) in India and mentions
some benefits of the e-Filing system for different stakeholders. It provides objective information based on reviews of literature
and documents available on the e-Filing systems of different revenue authorities worldwide, especially the e-filing systems for
tax related documents and forms. The paper explores the issues and shortcomings of the old e-Filing system of Tax returns in
India, with respect to the expectations of the stakeholders from the system. It also tries to highlight the factors that may have
compelled the Government of India to take a decision for implementing the new e-Filing System of Tax. The paper explains
the model/approach to execute the new e-Filing system in order to ensure that it gives a win-win outcome for all stakeholders
(including the citizens of India). It explains why and how in this new system reliability and availability have been given prime
importance while highlighting the recommended features and facilities of the new system, and the expectations of the different
stakeholders. This paper also recommends that in future, the e-Return file upload type should be shifted to extensive Business
Reporting Language (XBRL) from current extensible Markup Language.

1. Introduction
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
is changing the way the society functions. Internet is
one of the biggest revolutions in human history. The
impact of ICT can be felt in all economic and social
activities in a very conceivable manner. Governments
worldwide are developing increased capabilities to deliver services to the global Citizens. India, striving to
be the fulcrum of economic activities in the 21st century, is also working hard to keep pace with similar
efforts. Citizens/other stake holders must be given the
type of services that make them feel as if they are operating from the comfort of their home. This can be
achieved by automating all critical citizen centric pro Corresponding author: Harjit Sing, Aligarh Muslim University,
India. E-mail: harjit.singh@tes.com.

cesses. India is also working towards this to keep pace

with similar efforts. e-Filing system is one of the example in this direction.
As per Income Tax Act 1961, filing of Income Tax
Returns in India is on self assessment bases [20]. The
Income Tax Act has placed an obligation on Taxpayer
to file the Income Tax Return. Receipt and processing of manual documents including returns has posed
a significant challenge to the Department in terms of
meeting the expectations of taxpayers with respect to
turnaround times as well the expectations of receipt of
comprehensive and accurate taxpayer data by assessing officers.
The Department has deployed a portal [10] to facilitate stake holders (Citizens, Professionals, Businesses, Corporate, ERIs and Others) to file Tax Returns through electronic mode. Electronic filing of Income Tax Returns over the internet was introduced by

c 2013 IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved

ISSN 1878-7673/13/$27.50 

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H. Singh and H. Singh / E-filing system for tax returns and forms

the Department from 2006. Filing of Income Tax Returns electronically with Digital Signature Certificate
(DSC) is mandatory for all company (who is required
to furnish the return) or for a firm/individual, whose
accounts are required to be audited u/s 44AB of IT Act.
With effect from 01st April 2012 (From the Assessment Year 201213) onwards, e-Filing is compulsory
for an individual if total annual income exceeded INR
One Million. This limit has further been decreased to
Half Million effective 01 April 2013. However, digital signature is not mandatory in these cases for filing
tax return. For all other category of Taxpayers e-Filing
of Income Tax Return is Voluntary/Optional (with or
without DSC) i.e. these Taxpayers have option to file
Income Tax Return with the department in paper form
in concerned Income Tax office. Taxpayers, for whom
DSC is not mandatory, file the return electronically
(without digital signature), and thereafter submit (by
post) verification of the return in a form named as
ITR-V. The e-Filing system of Income Tax Returns has
given a lot of other benefits to all stakeholders. Some
of these benefits being experienced (but not limited to)
are like: Saving of time as data already available in
electronic form for further processing Saving on data
entry effort and cost for department, Saves issues up
of record keeping and requirement of physical space,
Interface between the Income Tax Department and the
Taxpayer is reduced, Accuracy of data is almost ensured (as data is entered by the users). Departments
initiative of providing e-Filing facility is one of the
steps to achieve the e-Governance objectives. Rather
than forcing the citizens and business community to
come to offices, more and more services are now being
provided at the place of their choice, be it their homes
or offices. It creates a Virtual Office (VO) for electronically delivering services at place and time convenient
to all.

2. Literature review
There are different prospective/versions/definitions
of e-Governance being mentioned by different authors.
However, the one which gives some depth [19] is eGovernance can be defined as the application of electronic means in the interaction between government
to citizens and government to businesses, as well as
in internal government operations to simplify and improve democratic, government and business aspects of
governance. But, e-Governance is not just about improving delivery of services to citizens, businesses and

government employees. It is also about blending Information and Communications Technology (ICT) with
administrative reforms to make government more efficient, drive down costs and increase transparency in
how government departments work. It also says that
if e-Governance is implemented properly, it can be an
asset for the un-served and under-served areas in India and help drive new levels of efficiency to government services in India. A paper on e-Government in
India [16] tells that e-Government Public administration, governed by bureaucratic structures built on rationale principles that dominated the twentieth century,
has failed to respond to the changing requirements of
the present times. e-Governance, which is a paradigm
shift over the traditional approaches in public administration, is rendering of government services and information to the public using electronic means. This
new paradigm has brought about a revolution in the
quality of service delivered to the citizens. It has ushered in transparency in the governing process, saving of time, simplification of procedures, better office management, better record management and improved attitude & job handling capacity of the dealing personnel. The present study substantiates these
theoretical assumptions about e-Governance by analyzing some experiences at the local, state and federal levels of government in India. This also covers
Scope of e-Government, e-Government Initiatives in
India (including at the State Level) and Challenges
for e-Government in India. Similar, there is a white
paper [19] recommending ways and policies for eGovernance scenario in India. This white paper looks
at key determinants for improving governance through
e-Governance in India. It seeks to analyze limiting factors and impediments in the way of proliferating eGovernance in India. From an IT spend perspective on
e-Governance, it looks at trends in other countries and
compares the per capita spend in India, which is very
low with those of other countries. IT initiatives in the
government in India have largely been on a piecemeal
basis characterized by a lack of vision that has limited
the resultant benefits. The use of innovative Public Private Partnership models has also been very limited. It
suggests a holistic approach based on innovative partnership models. In addition it makes some suggestions
for maximizing both, adoption of e-Governance and
changing the institutional framework for managing eGovernance.
Different versions to explain e-Filing and its usage
in different e-Governance initiates are available. One
such study [7] covers points like What is e-Filing, How

H. Singh and H. Singh / E-filing system for tax returns and forms

does it Work, dramatic impact of e-Filing, What is the

Adoption Trend Line? e-Filing in the State and Federal
Court Systems, Retrieval of Information from PaperBased Record Systems linked to e-Filing, Increased
Demand for Direct Interaction between Citizens and
Government Entities, Potential Increased Access by
Claimants and Plaintiffs to Governmental agencies and
the Courts, Increased Self-Service Capacity and Transparency of Operations. It concludes that e-Filing system is not about simply making it possible to transmit
information electronically. It is about a change in the
basic infrastructure used by citizens and the government to deal with one another.
There are few papers/documents available on related
to e-Filing systems for taxation, but there is no in-depth
research study/paper available related to e-Filing system of Tax related returns/forms in Indian context. One
paper reviewed in this area [14] has a done a superficial
and very limited study. It tries to tell about the growth
(in percentage terms only) for e-Filing of income Tax
returns. However, our research threw many facts which
confirmed that the facts and data/statistics contained in
this paper are incorrect and incomplete. Another resent
(Oct 2012) study [8] was done on Indian e-Filing system, but with a very limited and narrow scope, which
just covered taxpayers under category as Individual
using e-Filing system in a city in southern region of
India. Although, this paper shows different perspective
of satisfaction level among these users for e-Filing system, however, this study lacks coverage, like other categories of return filers and other regions/cities of India. This study says that the existing users are satisfied
with the e-filing facilities but most of the individual tax
payers are not awareness of the e-filing and e-payment
procedures so sufficient steps are required to create
more awareness in the minds of tax payers regarding
e-filing of income tax. One study on factors influencing acceptance of E-Government Services in India covered eFiling of Income Tax Returns in India [12] as
case for study. This was based on Unified Theory of
Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), however the problem statement saying that only 10% of
the Income Tax Returns are being filed as eFiled (FY
200809) is not relevant today. Another study on similar subject was done [18] with aim to investigate the
likely antecedents of young Indian professionals behavioural intention (BI) to use the income tax e-filing
service showed that antecedents of young Indian professionals BI to use the income tax e-filing service
are: perceived ease-of-use, personal innovativeness in
information technology, relative advantage (RA), per-

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formance of e-filing service, and compatibility. However this is also an old study (submitted in 2008). A lot
has changed in the e-Filing system of Income Tax Returns in India. Today more that 50% of the income tax
returns filed are through e-Filing system. So the relevance of these two studies is no longer applicable to
the current e-Filing system of Income Tax Returns in
India.
Study done on Finland Tax Return Filing Online [13] is in different context. The purpose of this
case study was to investigate which factors affect diffusion of tax return filing online (e-return) in Finland.
Another aim was to develop an adoption forecast for
the service. Finally, customer categorization was suggested in order to enable e-return deliver more public value by accommodating the needs of different customer groups. Diffusion of Innovations theory, Bass
Diffusion Model and Service Process Analysis were
used as theoretical base for the study. For user of eFiling system of returns, satisfaction survey conducted
by Finnish Tax Administration was used for statistical analysis and mathematical modelling. In addition,
e-return in Finland was benchmarked against leading
practices from Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands.
Based on the analysis, the recommendations were
given for improving the e-return service in Finland.
The recommendations can be split into two groups:
recommendations aiming at increasing the attractiveness of e-return for potential adopters (e.g. introduction of instant tax assessment feature online), and recommendations meant to discourage people from submitting tax return in paper (e.g. paper form service
processing fee). A study of the e-Filing System on
Malaysian Taxpayers [5] covers how e-Filing system
for taxpayers is an important e-government service in
Malaysia. This paper investigates the factors that lead
to the acceptance of e-Filing among taxpayers by using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study
proposes a model consisting of three constructs, which
are perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and
perceived risk. The model proposed by this study is a
simpler model compared to other studies on e-Filing
systems. The confirmatory factor analysis shows that
the model is an adequate fit and the perceived risk
construct has a negative association with the perceived
usefulness construct. However, there is no significant
association between the perceived risk and perceived
ease of use constructs. Another study [1] on Issues
in e-Filing System, confirms that the emerging of a
fast delivery service required a faster mechanism of
transaction between government and its people. How-

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ever, it is equally associated with some ground issues.

The primary issues addresses by this paper were the
relationships between the perceived: security tightening, facilitating conditions, usefulness, eases of using
e-Filing system and users retention. The second issue addresses by the paper is the differences in gender of the users with respect to factors that influence
their state of retention. The findings of the study show a
strong relationship between the predicting factors and
users intention to continuing using the e-Filing system. The findings also show that the retention of users
is highly affected by the differences in the gender of the
users. In addition, the paper highlights some potential
implications of the findings necessary for policy makers to achieve a successful e-Filing system in the country. As reflected in the findings, it is imperative for all
agencies staff charged with e-government policy implementations to equip themselves with more sophisticated ICT tools to guide the users. The fact is that the
gaps in IT infrastructure can affect peoples retention to
continue using the system provided by the government.
Above all, the findings show that users must perceive
the technology somehow useful, easy and friendly as
well as security guaranteed. Finally, the paper suggests that more IT infrastructures and other incentives
should be provided to encourage the public to use the
system and effective capacity building program for the
agencys staff that can help facilitate readiness of the
people to use the system, if e-Filing is to become a successful policy program. Thus, the agencys staff must
play effective roles to respond to the public perceptual
complaints about the e-Filing system and government
must pay attention to gender differences in their retention to continue using the system. A similar study [3]
tried to go deep on perceived risk to the adoption of
e-filing. It is predicted that many of these risk facets
will be significant. Among the risks that could possibly be significant are performance risks, psychological risks, time risks and privacy risks. It says that risk
reducing strategies could be formulated to encourage
e-Filing adoption such as improved security features
for the user interface. It stresses that strategies to reduce risks should consider the type/category of the system users like Corporate, Intermediaries and Individuals (with different capabilities of internet adoption).
The result of a different survey [21] conducted on
e-Filing in US has shown that majority of Americans
are comfortable with e-Filing. In fact the acceptance of
e-Fili ng has given rise to an increased comfort with
website tax preparation and it seems that Americans
have shifted more swiftly than expected to the e-Filing

system. Also the same level of comfort is shown in receiving their refunds electronically. Not surprisingly,
younger Americans in particular are more likely to eFile their tax returns and receive refunds electronically
than citizens aged 65 or older. The study also found
that men are much more willing than women to use the
Internet for tax preparation and e-Filing their tax returns. An article [2] on individual UK taxpayers aimed
to review the attitudes to information and communications technology (ICT) adoption between taxpayers,
tax agents and government departments. The results
confirm that small/medium sized tax agent firms are
more likely to be technology enthusiasts/early adopters
of e-filing for their individual clients. As their businesses are more likely to be driven by technology
savvy population, they have fewer issues with the incomplete e-filing system available at the early stages
of its roll out and were more motivated by the visible
benefits available from adopting e-filing. Larger firms
have been slower and appeared more reluctant. As eFiling system is an integral part of e-Government.

3. Research methodology
Research Methodology used for this study is based
on sampling technique. The details are as:
Sample study was done by the author on some
of the established Portals of Revenue Authorities/
Agencies of developed countries like Australian
Taxation Office [4], Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
of US [11] and Canadian Revenue Agency [6],
for type of facilities/functionalities provided by eFiling systems of developed countries to their citizens (and stakeholders) for electronic filing of Tax
Returns. Also, analysis of other e-Governance portals of India [15] to study how the standards are
being followed as per Government of India guidelines: MCA21 (for Ministry of Corporate Affairs,
Government of India).
Data Collection and Analysis: Target samples (different stakeholders), method and purpose of their inclusion in sample are explained as:
Discussions with Client team on all aspects of requirements for new system.
Survey for individual users (citizens) for inclusion
of their expectations in the recommended solution
Discussion with different user groups (through
workshops) for their pain areas of the existing e-Filing system and their expectations/

H. Singh and H. Singh / E-filing system for tax returns and forms

suggestions on the new system. These groups

are: Individual users (salaried, self-employed,
professional and businessmen, partners of firms
and Directors of companies).
Response from their experience of old system and expectations from new system were
collected from around 100 respondents through questionnaire having multiple choice
questions, ratings (1 to 5 scale) based questions and subjective questions, covering wide
scope in about 25 questions. This was based
on the proven concept (especially in usability area) that in these type of surveys
feedback from 3 to 4 participants in each
category/subgroup is sufficient to know the
views of the complete user group.
Detailed analysis was done for this data collected to categorise the findings.
Similar discussions with Chartered Accountants and Tax Lawyers (who file returns on behalf of other businesses and individuals)
Feedback discussions with Electronic Return
Intermediaries (ERIs): Third party utility providers and Bulk Filers like Taxsmile and Skorydov Systems
Brainstorming sessions by the teams of the Service Provider working on this project.
Facts recorded by the author of this research
paper as part of his experience of working
on different e-Governance projects, especially
with Direct Taxes Department of India.
Detailed study and analysis of the old e-Filing
system

4. Research findings
Easy availability of returns is ensured for processing, easily access and use of data for future returns by
the users and status of the processing of tax returns
and refunds is shown online. The fast paced globalization of the economy and rapidly increasing tax base is
adding to the work load of the department. Faster processing of IT Returns filed electronically with respect
to processing of paper returns (filed in the offices of
the department) is being managed by the departments,
because of inbuilt benefits of e-Filing and dedicated
ITR processing facility at Bangalore for electronically
filed IT Returns. Due to this new dedicated facility,
citizens are receiving their tax refunds hassle-free, in-

129

cluding in most cases, directly into their bank accounts.

This lead to transparent way of functioning and lead
to more citizens overall satisfaction. Although department has not given the due attentions towards increasing the awareness (including the benefits) of e-Filing
system among citizens. Still a large number of users
are volunteer/optional users. Today more than 80% of
e-Filing of IT returns in India is voluntary and 32%
of IT Returns are being filed outside office hours. The
success of this can be observed from the data [10]
as the number of returns filed electronically has risen
from around half a million in FY 200607 to 21.4 million in FY 201213, which now covers about 60% of
the total Income Tax Returns being filed in India. The
recorded average growth of e-Filing of IT Returns is
more that 100% year-on-year and much more than the
anticipated growth by the Income Tax department. The
old e-Filing system was not planned for this much load
and used to have many type of problems in every peak
session (near statutory end dates) of the return filing.
During the study for this paper, it is also observed
that in India, most government ministries and departments (central as well as state level) have so far followed a commodity-based approach while finding solutions to their ICT requirements. This approach is
counterproductive and many times turn out to be more
expensive in the long-run. Till now, the in-house IT
departments of various government departments have
followed the practice of purchasing hardware, software, services and networks from multiple vendors.
Over the years, this practice has left government departments with IT systems, standards and technologies that cannot interface with each other. Consequently this proves to be an obstruction to intra and
inter departmental information sharing and collaboration. So, what is required in Indias government sector
is a strategic shift from the commodity based IT approach to a mature solution/services based approach.
The viewpoint is mentioned in one of the white paper [19] on e-Governance in India.
Like concept/model generally being adopted by different Government departments in India for execution
of ICT systems, earlier e-Filing system was also based
on similar concept. The system was owned by the Department and was being executed as a group of multiple vendors, each reporting directly to a designated
team of department officers. Although all vendors are
experts in their own area, however there are many other
constraints/challenges in this type of execution model
like coordination among different vendor partners is a
big problem. Many times very small problems/issues

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H. Singh and H. Singh / E-filing system for tax returns and forms

caught into blame game among them. The contract periods do not map to each other, including changing
of different vendors at different times. These, coupled
with other inherited shortcomings of this system have
many challenges and issues for the stakeholders (especially for the department), like:
System environment components (like servers,
network equipment and storage) have been declared obsolete by respective Original Equipment
Manufacturers (OEMs).
Missing redundancies during failure of any component of the system (single point of failure).
Very limited technical staff with the department.
These days, external and internal Security threats
(especially on Government portals in India with sensitive information) have increased many times. There is
trend on the rise in the use of the sophisticated and advance technology by the hackers for these attacks. The
protection of information from these attacks is now
the prime focus for the e-Governance projects. Special
agencies like CERT-in has been established by GOI for
this purpose only. This system being one of the important public system of GOI and contains very sensitive information. Hence, comprehensive e-Security is
now the prime focus area for this new system to handle. Government departments in India are generally not
technically equipped to take case of this.
Many recent actions by the finance ministry to enhance the overall tax base would increase the total IT
returns being filed. Realizing the potential of e-Filing,
department wants that many of the tax payers who file
paper IT returns shift to e-Filing of IT returns. In this
study, it is evident that addition of tax returns is in the
age bracket of 25 to 30 years. Most of our young generation is tech savvy and would like to file tax return
using internet (i.e. e-Filing system). With all these factors, the expectations indicated that the total number of
e-Filing of IT returns would increase more rapidly in
next 5 years than the past. This study has also shown
that taxpayers tend to e-file near the tax deadline and
this may lead to problem of system response if the
e-filing system is not tailored to accommodate this.
Department is a leading organization in implementation of Information Technology and pioneer in many
concepts of e-Governance in India. Department wishes
to exemplify a technology driven transformation and
bring in a paradigm shift in the way stake holders
interact with department for their all the Tax related
services. Department wants a system which is State
of the Art and best in its class. Also, for quite some
time now, with widespread awareness of Information

and Communication Technology (ICT), its benefits and

penetration of Internet, the usage of on-line systems
has increased tremendously (Anywhere-Anytime concept), this department too has experienced huge increase in volumes of filing of Income Tax Returns electronically resulting in tax filers database increasing day
by day. The convergence of all forms of communications (especially revolution in the mobile handsets
Smartphone/Tablet Computer) on the digital playfield
is opening up immense new possibilities of achieving
speed, versatility and space-time independence.

5. Solution and execution model

The main feature of the model adopted in the new
e-Filing System is based on the Government of Indias
PPP initiative of Service Delivery model. In technical
teams is known as DBFOMT (Design-Build-FinanceOperate-Maintain-Transfer) model. In general is called
a BOOT project, where the Service Provider has invested and department will pay regularly based on
the number of transaction (i.e. number of successful
submissions of different e-Returns by the users). The
whole infrastructure and services would be owned and
handled by the IT Partner.
Being a citizen centric system, reliability and availability of the system has been given prime importance.
Two levels of redundancies have been designed as in
Primary Data Centre, servers of each layer (viz. Web,
Application and Database) to be implemented in Load
Balanced Active-Active Cluster mode (minimum two
servers in each layer). Additional Data Centre (Disaster Recovery site) with 100% capacity (w.r.t. Primary Data Centre) in Active-Passive mode. It is a robust system based on Stringent Services Levels for
all services and system response times. The design
should stress on secure, platform agnostic and scalable e-Filing system. Spectrum of Tax Payers Profile
is Taxpayers having no knowledge of technology and
tax laws as one side and Taxpayers with enhanced technical skills and knowledge of tax laws on the other
side. The system should ensure that all types of Taxpayers should come forward for e-Filing of Tax Returns. These days the complexity to operate the new
generation Mobile phones (Smart phones), without any
formal training virtually all type of users are efficiently
using them and very satisfied. Reason is known, user
friendliness in terms of GUI features and navigations.
Same logic should work for the portals/websites. Take
help from the experts from internet sites like: Guide-

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131

Fig. 1. Steps for e-Filing of Tax return. (Colours are visible in the online version of the article; http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/GOV-130348)

Fig. 2. Remote Management Facility and Network redundancy. (Colours are visible in the online version of the article; http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/
GOV-130348)

lines for government web designers to learn how to

make websites more usable, useful, and accessible [9].
The site addresses a broad range of factors that go
into web design and development. Similarly help from
Nielsen Norman Group [17], Evidence-Based User
Experience Research, Training, and Consulting.
To access the e-Filing application and to avail services, the user has to register. External users are endusers who avail the e-Filing facilities for submission
of returns and/or forms, query on PAN details, and
submit information needed for ITD, raise issues, concerns and grievances, if any. They include Individuals,
Authorized Representative (CA), Corporate, Interme-

diaries and External agency like Third Party Reporting Agency, Bank, Government Department, Financial
Institution and Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) return
filers. External users accessing the e-Filing Application through internet can Register, Login and get access or authenticated, Edit or change profile, Download
offline returns/forms, open online returns/forms, Upload details in the returns/forms, attach DSC (if available), View allowed information, Can raise grievances
and/or contact the helpdesk for queries related to eFiling. Figure 1 shows that if steps are followed properly, how much simple is this process.
It was envisaged that all statutory submissions of

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H. Singh and H. Singh / E-filing system for tax returns and forms

Fig. 3. User Workflow in the e-Fining system.

forms by different Taxpayers (other than ITRs) should

ultimately be facilitated through e-Filing system. Most
important of these would be the e-Filing of Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) statements to be filed by Tax
Detectors and e-Filing of Annual Information Report
(AIR) by the relevant agencies (as designated by the
Government). Also, considering that in most of the
cases, either the information provided by the citizens
(like PAN, Address and Bank Account etc) as new information is same (as provided last time and exists
within the system) or can be used as base for generation of new system. It was also advised that Pre-filled
forms with earlier information should be available as
an option to the users. Further, since the latest advance
tax and TDS information is already available with the
system, it is being recommended that with an option
while filling the ITRs, this information should also be
able to be exported to the ITRs (linked to PAN and Assessment Year), this concept will be new for any tax return eFiling systems. The new system is also proposed
to be ready for alert and notification in future. It will be
integrated with mobile service delivery gateway which

would enable the taxpayers to enquire about status of

any service request pending with Income Tax Department.
Remote management facility connecting PDC via
two different leased lines on separate routers even from
two different service providers. Facility has a set of
firewall with IPS features filter the traffic in and out
direction via security policies. High level connectivity
diagram between Primary Data Centre, Business Continuity Plan site (Disaster Recovery site) and e-Filing
Facility is shown as Fig. 2.
Each type of user is navigated through a particular process flow. Figure 3, explains the how each type
of user follows a particular workflow/process flow designed for that type. The ITD E-Filing Portal is being
designed as the primary mechanism for delivering services to Taxpayer (Individual/Corporate) and internal
users. Design and Development follow the modular approach to ensure easier enhancement of portal services
as well as ensure access controls by clearly segregating
User Interface from e-Filing Service Engine. Comprehensive e-Security is now the prime focus area (stating

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133

Fig. 4. Home page of the old e-Filing Application. (Colours are visible in the online version of the article; http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/GOV-130348)

Fig. 5. Home page of the new e-Filing Application. (Colours are visible in the online version of the article; http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/GOV130348)

from in-build design of the Application) for this new

system. UI Design of Home Page (Old Application)
is shown in Fig. 4 and the UI Design of Main (Home
page) Screens as envisaged is shown in Fig. 5. One can
clearly notice the dramatic change for the good in the
new home page. Problems of the existing portal (some
mentioned below) has been handled in new portal

Navigation is not proper. There are 2 download

options present on the homepage and each opens
a different page with different content. This confuses user.
Big vertical scroll on home page due to which the
relevant content is not visible above the fold.
The news and updates section although present is

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H. Singh and H. Singh / E-filing system for tax returns and forms

not clearly visible. Proper demarcation required.

Not compliant to Indian web guidelines.
Once the system is fully functional and stabilized,
considering overall benefits, the e-Return file upload
type should be shifted to extensive Business Reporting Language (XBRL) from current extensive
Markup Language (XML). Also, considering the constraints and hassles of the ITR-V process faced by
all stakeholders, the concepts of e-Signature and One
Time Password (OTP) should be explored for implementation as part of this system.
It is also recommended that department should have
a single face to the public/Taxpayers. All other portals (or web sites) maintained by the department should
merged with this system. This will not only save cost
and effort due to duplicity, but also take away the confusion among users created by different portals of the
same department.

Worldwide use of social networking sites and other

trends in the internet can also be exploited for Training and awareness of citizens like Detailed demo film
available on YouTube to show how to use different facilities of e-Filing system. System before implementation should take case of the Shortcoming/issues highlighted for existing system in the above section. Considering the trend in mobile world, further we should
consider to provide this system through mobile applications.

References
[1]

[2]

[3]

6. Conclusion
There was no other way but to go for a new state of
the art e-Filing system. The best model required here
was that enables government to concentrate on core
mission critical value-adding activities while shifting
the technology related activities to professional partners. In other words, it can focus its attention on what
it does best and use its IT partners to deliver what
it is experienced at delivering. Also, a further benefit expected if government somehow saves on upfront
investment in bulk (CapEx). The main feature of the
model adopted in the new e-Filing System is Government of Indias PPP initiative based Services Delivery
Model and the complete infrastructure/services of the
system would be owned and handled/maintained by the
IT partner.
Being a citizen centric system, reliability and availability has been given prime importance. Two levels of
redundancies have been designed as in Primary Data
Centre, servers of each layer (viz. Web, Application
and Database) to be implemented in Load Balanced
Active-Active Cluster mode (minimum two servers in
each layer). Additional Data Centre (DR site) with
100% capacity (w.r.t. Primary Data Centre) in ActivePassive mode. It would be a robust IT system based
on Stringent Services Levels for all services and system response times. The design should stress on secure, platform agnostic and scalable e-Filing system.
The facility should be there for dedicated Call Centre
services. It should be a one-stop shop for the users.

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