You can now file your income-tax returns without visiting the taxman's office. Just drop your Saral form at any branch of HDFC Bank or ICICI Bank.

For less than Rs 100, the banks will file your returns electronically and even get you the acknowledgement from the income-tax department.

According to income-tax officials, the revenue department has finalised the plan for electronic filing of returns so that salaried professionals can avoid queuing up before income-tax offices.

HDFC Bank or ICICI Bank will transmit the tax payer's information in a specified format to the revenue department's main server.

The officials said a pilot project for online transmission of tax payment information would be launched simultaneously in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by the end of this month. While they said the fee to be charged by the intermediary would be less than Rs 100, it would be left to the banks to decide on the exact amount.

After outsourcing allotment of permanent account number cards to UTI Investor Services Ltd, this will be the second major move by the department to reduce interface between the tax collector and the tax payer. "The idea is to let the department concentrate on its core function, which is tax collection," said an income-tax official.

The department also recently launched a software package called Sampark, which can be downloaded from its site for filing of returns. It is simultaneously working on facilitating filing of returns over the Internet. "Once the concept of digital signatures is in place, we will enable Internet filing of returns too," said the official.

Under the electronic filing mechanism, tax payers can either fill the Saral form and drop it at the branches of the intermediary banks, or they can provide necessary information to the data entry operator in the branch. The operator will transmit the data to the revenue department's server the same day.

Less taxing

• The project will be launched simultaneously in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by the end of July
• The intermediaries will transmit the tax payer's information in a specified format to the revenue department's main server
• Allotment of PAN cards has been outsourced to UTI Investor Services Ltd
• A software package called Sampark can also be used for filing of returns