I-T dept selects Oracle to develop single database

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department has selected Oracle to drive its e-delivery of taxpayer services project across the country.






The department has chosen Oracle database and Oracle Fusion Middleware as the platform to develop a single National Database, based on 3-tier mode architecture to increase efficiency and improve citizen services.





Director General (Systems), Department of Income Tax, V.S. Mathur said that the e-Delivery of taxpayers service project is an initiative of the Ministry of Finance and one of the largest e-governance projects undertaken by the Government of India.





"Oracle will consolidate the existing 36 regional database into a single database. All 745 Income tax offices in 510 cities will be linked to this single national database. Under this project Oracle will also upgrade the Income tax department's existing, custom-developed platform from two-tier IT architecture to three-tier mode," Mathur said.

However, the Income tax department denied revealing the actual investment to be made in the National Data Center (NDC), but said that the investment would be huge. A number of companies are eyeing to bid for the tenders. The players include — TCS with HP, Wipro with Sun and IBM.






The phase two of this project will be completed by the end of April 2006. The service will be completely operational for the people by December 2006.





Speaking about the Phase three of the national e-governance program, Mathur said that the department's single national database consolidation and e-delivery of taxpayers services project is one of the important one. The third phase includes the implementation of a National Computer Center- complete with Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery sites, All India Virtual Private Network of all Income tax offices and migration of customised applications software to enable about 13,000 users to work on single national database.





Vice-president, Government, Health and Education, Oracle Corporation, Asia-Pacific Division, Adaire Fox-Martin said that implementation of the Oracle database and Oracle Fusion Middleware would ensure faster processing of returns, increase in efficiency and collections.





"We look forward to working with the Income Tax Department to provide a system that will help benefit the citizens of India. It would also help them leverage the latest technologies to drive national development and competitiveness," she added.