Arun Jaitley launches 'Aaykar Setu' to enhance e-access of taxpayers

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department has launched an online facility that will enable payment of taxes, tracking of tax deducted at source and filing of applications for permanent account numbers (PAN).

The facility known as ' Aaykar Setu,' launched by finance minister Arun Jaitley, will also help people link their 12-digit biometric identifier Aadhaar with PAN.

Central Board of Direct Taxes will make it available as a desktop service and as an app for Android mobile phones, providing a range of informative and useful tax services.

"This is a very important step forward by the CBDT and the principal reason being technology as a very powerful tool becomes an enabler," Jaitley said.

With the app, assesses can discharge most of their tax work without any external help, sitting at home, the minister said.

The app allows the IT department to communicate directly with taxpayers.

It can be downloaded by giving a missed call to 7306525252.

"The app reduces the physical interface between assessing officer and assessees. Physical interface has many unintended consequences -it is time-consuming and can lead to improprieties," Jaitley said.