The income tax office at Masab tank witnessed a huge rush on Sunday, the last day for filing IT returns. Though the process has gone online, tax payers from the city crowded the office during the day to get their returns filed in person. The IT counters across the city witnessed long queues of tax payers who waited from 8 am to be the first ones at the counters that opened at 9 am.

Tax payers said that many of them opted out of the online system as they were more "comfortable" with the old system. Other's complained that the online process was not an easy task as the server was down most of the time. "Some of the applications filed online were rejected by the system.

As my colleagues had informed about the shortcomings of the online process I stuck to the regular tax paying process," said N Rajeshwara Rao, a tax payer from Dilshuknagar who said that he might opt for the online process from the coming year.

All the four counters opened at IT towers were crowded. "It takes ages for each of the forms to be processed and in spite of reaching here at around 9.30 a, we are still not able to get the work done," said G Viswanathan, an IT professional who had come with his wife to file their returns. Several counters saw heated arguments with officials who had pulled in security officials to manage the crowd.

"We had expected that the crowd to be less this year with the online process kicking in. But everyone who have come to this office today have waited for over two hours to get the returns filed," said Ranganath Swami, a contractor.

The women's counter at the towers seemed to have a lower rush when compared to the previous years, officials said. The counters functioned till 6 pm.