MoF: some online income tax accounts have been accessed illegally
9 Apr, 2014The Income Tax department has been encouraging online filing of tax returns and nearly 3 crores have been filed during the financial yeat 2013-14. Last year, the Mumbai Police had claimed that e-filing accounts of many persons were unauthorisedly accessed including that of the top industrialists, actors and cricketers like Anil Ambani, Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan among others. An application was filed under the RTI Act seeking information about the details on hacking of income tax returns filing accounts of individuals and the measures taken by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to check such activities.
Replying to the application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has informed that Income tax online return accounts of certain people have been unauthorisedly accessed. The reply says that there have been instances when the authentication details of certain class of e-filers have been obtained by persons from sources other than the website and then the passwords were reset and the e-filing account accessed. However, the reply categorically points that no instance of hacking has been noticed. As per the reply, a process of “multifunctional authentication” has been designed to address the issue and the same shall be in place shortly to address any illegal access to e-filers’ accounts.
The Income Tax department has pointed that there are many mobile applications which are not approved by it and has adviced public to file income tax returns electronically at www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.