The IT Returns Migration Project
Every year, people all over the country file their income tax returns. The Income Tax Department has provided an e-filing facility for people to file their returns online. To file your IT returns online, you need to download a spreadsheet, which works only on MS Excel. Because of this, many people who cannot use MS Excel are excluded from the option of e-filing of IT returns.
We at DeepRoot, staunch believers in Freedom, like many others, were hit hard by this preferential treatment of the IT department. For a country which boasts of heroic freedom fighters, which has marked history, people are clearly excluded from the possibility of e-filing their returns online. It is a sad state of affairs, a far cry from the passionate people that made freedom their clarion call. Letters have been sent and many people have cried foul. I've seen open letters to President Pratibha Patil and in previous years, to Dr. A. P. J Abdul Kalam.
After discussion about it while celebrating 62 years of Independence in our country, we decided to take up the challenge of making this facility available to users of OpenOffice, a platform independent, freely downloadable office suite. Thanks to Mr Abhas Abhinav, CEO of DeepRoot, I was given the task of migrating the spreadsheet. This has been a generous chance to use my time here at office to do this kind of work. Business commitments notwithstanding, I've been able to dedicate considerable time to this task. Now, weeks later, the spreadsheet is available freely for download.
by Terence Monteiro
