The Income Tax department has plans to come up with new set of services regarding processing of tax returns and refunds this year. The department aims in doing so following the proposal to replace the current Income Tax Act with Direct Taxes Code (DTC) in the upcoming fiscal.

"This is the last year of the 1961 Income Tax Act. This year, a number of taxpayer programmes of the department can be initiated and completed," CBDT Member (Revenue) Durgesh Shankar said.

The I-T department plans to set up an independent Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) directorate along with dealing with issues of concern like swift processing of tax returns and technological upgrade of tax refunds, he said.

The Department would extend schemes like the Refund Banker scheme to other locations this fiscal. The scheme currently runs in 15 cities of the country.

The Finance Minister had announced in the annual budget meeting this year that the DTC would be introduced by April 2011 and would encompass other direct taxes including wealth tax.