The Budget 2010-11 proposes to carry forward the process of reforms in tax administration in the country. The income tax department will soon notify Saral-II form for individual salaried taxpayers for the coming assessment year.

Presenting the budget, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced an extension of the citizen-centric initiative `Sevottam' which was launched as a pilot project in Pune, Kochi and Chandigarh, to four more cities this year.

The centralised processing centre at Bengaluru is now fully functional and processing around 20, 000 tax returns daily. This will help reduce the physical interface between the taxpayers and the tax administration and speed up procedures and processes, he said.

The centralised processing programme will be taken forward by setting up two more centers during the year, he said.

The proposals related to indirect taxes are focused to achieve a further degree of fiscal consolidation without impairing the recovery process and moving forward on the road to GST. Project ACES-Automation of central excise and Service Tax, has been rolled out in the country. This will impart greater transparency in tax administration and improve the delivery of taxpayer services.

Besides, the Budget proposes to expand the scope of settlement commission in respect of central excise and customs so that certain category of cases that hitherto fell outside its jurisdiction may be admitted.

Mukherjee said the wide-ranging discussions on the Direct Tax Code with stakeholders have been concluded and the government will be in a position to implement the DTC from 1 April 2011.

He said the centre is also actively engaged with the empowered committee of state finance ministers to finalise the structure of Good and Services Tax (GST) as well as the modalities of its expeditious implementation. The government hopes to introduce GST also by April 2011, Mukherjee said.