AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 7649 - I-T department to send OTP, include Aadhaar to ease taxpayer e-filing

In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.

On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.

In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.

In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.

In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.

"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi

Ram Krishnaswamy

Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Saturday, March 28, 2015

7649 - I-T department to send OTP, include Aadhaar to ease taxpayer e-filing - First Post

I-T department to send OTP, include Aadhaar to ease taxpayer e-filing

Mar 24, 2015 20:45 IST

Bangalore: Taxpayers will soon get relief from sending a paper acknowledgement of their e-filed return as Income Tax department is set to introduce a new customer verification system for the task by sending One Time Passwords, validating net banking identity and enrolling Aadhaar number in the returns form.

The I-T department, through its policy making body Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has decided to
completely do away with the "cumbersome" procedure undertaken currently by a taxpayer to send his ITR-V (Verification) form to the department's Central Processing Centre (CPC) based in Bangalore through post.

"We are fastly moving towards a regime where the taxpayer will not have to send the paper acknowledgement of the ITR-V (Income Tax Return Verification).

"We want to make e-filing completely hassle-free and easy for taxpayers," CPC Director and I-T Commissioner RK Mishra told a group of visiting journalists in New Delhi.

A number of taxpayers have complained to the department that despite they sending the hard copy of ITR-V by "speed or registered post" their forms were being acknowledged by the CPC as "not received" and hence the department, for long, has been looking at options to do away with this system altogether.

The CPC Director said the department has already submitted a blueprint for introducing these new measures to the CBDT and these will be implemented very soon.

In order to ensure another layer of security and authenticity to the e-filed I-T returns, the officer said, the return forms will have a new column for mentioning the unique Aadhaar number of the taxpayer.

"Last year, we introduced a new column in the ITR where taxpayers had to share their personal mobile numbers and email ids. That exercise has given us good results and taxpayers have benefitted as we could promptly inform them about their tax issues.

"Aadhaar will not only add to the security of the ITR but also give it a unique and distinct identity," he said adding however, it was "not" mandatory.

As per existing rules, a person who files his or her tax return online, has to send a copy of the ITR-V to CPC within 120 days for processing of the return.

"We have made some categories in this regard (for stopping ITR-V totally). Like in case of low-risk category of taxpayers like salaried class we will send a One Time Password (OTP) on their mobile phone to authenticate their e-return.

"In case of high risk category of taxpayers like corporate and big entities we can ask them to do it through their net banking accounts which are already vetted and cleared by respective banks," he said.

We hope, Mishra said, to put all these measures in place before the upcoming tax filing season.

The CPC Director Mishra said, the CBDT, in October last year had amended the provisions of the I-T Act and made it easy for the department to undertake these new methods for "validation" of e-returns.

"We were thinking about bringing in a regime of electronic signatures which are also valid under the law of the land.

"We understand asking normal taxpayers to get digital signatures is going to cost the taxpayer some money and trouble. Hence, we got the new protocols of OTP, net banking and Aadhaar inclusion done.These all are electronic signatures of a customer which hold legal validity," he said.

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At CPC, a senior officer working here said, the aim is to reduce the workload on junior staff of the I-T department who could concentrate their energies in undertaking other mandates of the department which is to curb tax evasion and widen the tax base.

"When we take care of I-T returns at CPC and subsequently the refunds and other issues, our officers on the field have an opportunity to deploy their energies on other tasks," the officer said.

Mishra said the CPC, till now, has received 3 crore e-returns and by 31 March the numbers are expected to touch an all-time high of 3.2 crore.

"We want to urge taxpayers to take up more and more e-filing as it enables the I-T department to quickly address their issues related to refunds, grievances and returns mis-match," he said.

E-filing of I-T returns is mandatory for those taxpayers whose annual income is Rs 5 lakh or more. However, people below this income bracket can also file e-returns.

"Seventy-five percent of those who are not supposed to file e-returns have done so and this is what encourages us," Mishra said.

The official e-filing portal of the department has also introduced a new link which enables taxpayers to get a redressal of their grievances in five days time.

PTI