E- Filling taxpayers won’t have to acquire a digital Signature

E- Filling taxpayers won’t have to acquire a digital Signature.
The income tax department is set to introduce a free-of-cost and easy-to-operate electronic signature facility to file income tax returns electronically. The facility will help taxpayers who do not have a digital signature. It will save them from the mandatory requirement of sending a hard copy of the return filed electronically through speed post to the department’s central processing centre in Bangalore. Acquiring an electronic signature will not involve any cost for the taxpayer, as it will be provided by the department. Currently, only those having digital signatures acquired through specified vendors by paying the required charges need not send the hard copy of the return to the department after filing electronically. A senior income tax department official told Business Standard the electronic signature mode was based on international best practices and would benefit taxpayers as well as the government. He said the necessary clearances from the ministry of information technology (MIT) had been taken to introduce the facility. The final approval from the finance ministry to implement it from this year itself is likely soon.