Outsourcing finally comes to India. I-T dept to outsource. Infosys to setup a BPO for I-T

by Sriram Vadlamani ·



Do what you do best and outsource the rest.

Income Tax department has finally realized that
It has outsourced most of its operations to a BPO,
which will be set-up by Infosys. I-T department will
be focusing more on tax evaders.


There are 5 lakh cases pending at the I-T department at
the end of the year 2008. I-T department is also facing
severe shortage of manpower, which is estimated to
be 33% of the total workforce. Posts of Deputy
and assistant commissioners itself are falling short by 33%.


I-T department will take the help of Infosys to set-up a
centralized processing unit for tax returns. With this
new BPO you can expect your tax returns to come a
lot quicker. The pilot will be set-up in Bangalore in the
next 6 months an will be tested on citizens of Bangalore.
In 5 years time other centers will be rolled
out across the country.


Infosys will be paid 250 crores for 5 years. I-T department
will provide the office space and Infosys will be responsible
for the hardware, logistics to move scanned tax returns
to the centralized processing unit and software for data mining.


There is one issue though.
The privacy of the taxpayer is
at risk. Infosys staff will be privy
to the information of the citizens.


Mint says that there are no laws to protect the
privacy so government is free to outsource its operations.


This is a little discomforting. I am sure there will be checks
and balances in place. But, we all know what checks and
balances have done so far.

If you are in Bangalore expect your tax returns faster.