Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee unveiled the centralized processing centre (CPC) of the Income Tax Department recently. Infosys will be the partner in implementing the new data centre.

As a flagship of the central government's e-governance project, the CPC, located in Electronic City on Hosur Road, is equipped with a dedicated call centre, where tax payers can enquire about the status of their returns and refunds.

The CPC project at Bengaluru was approved by the Union Cabinet at a total cost of Rs 255 Crore over a five-year period.

"The objective for technology induction in the department has been to enhance the capacity of the department to handle the increase in numbers of tax payers and to provide better tax payer services in a systematic manner," Mukherjee said.

The remote record storage unit at the centre reduces congestion in the IT offices, as tax payers can call 080-4345-6700 to seek information pertaining to filing their returns or seeking refunds

The Governement is also planning to set-up two more similar centralised processing centres in Pune and Maneasar.