The members of Bihar Chamber of Commerce (BCC) have told income tax commissioners that the new income tax return forms have become more complex than the earlier Saral forms. Even in the past, people found it difficult to fill up the one page Saral forms.

The new forms, running into several pages, have made the filing of returns more difficult, said some senior members of the chamber.

Commissioner of income tax I, SK Jha and commissioner of income tax II, OP Agrawal visited the chamber on Thursday to apprise the members of the new forms and how to fill up the income tax forms 1, 2 and 4 which are applicable for non-company, non-audit cases for the purpose of fling income tax returns.

Chamber secretary general NK Thakur told the members that people having income from salary, interest from property, capital gain and business, having a turnover of less than Rs 40 lakh, are required to fill up the new IT return forms 1,2 and 4. Jha and Agrawal said this awareness programme was part of a continuous process of the department to inform the people about the new forms and how to fill them up.

But, the audio-visual presentation of the new income tax return forms failed to educate properly the members as the chairman of the taxation sub-committee of the chamber PK Agrawal, who chaired the meeting, asked the operator to do his job quickly. When the members could not understand the presentation, the audio-visual presentation was stopped, sources said.

Jha, however, said the new forms look longer just because it was prepared with a purpose that people do not have to look into the income tax laws. The new forms carry more information and they are comprehensive to meet the needs of income tax assesses, he added.

Jha said an income tax assesse, while filing the income tax returns, must take care to file in the return the particulars of Rs 10 lakh or more deposited in his account in banks, shares and debentures purchased to the tune of Rs 1 lakh, the expenditure of Rs 2 lakh through their credit cards and Rs 2 lakh investments in mutual funds in a year.

If the assesse does not enter these particulars in their returns, then the income tax office may send him a notice in this regard, after gathering information from the banks and financial institutions trading in stock exchanges, Jha added.