The commission, which has chalked out a time-bound plan to dispose of pending applications, also plans to reach out to the public at large.The commission says it aims to reduce the time taken for settlement of an application to three years from five years. "We have decided to discourage requests for adjournments to avoid delays," commission vice-chairman GS Sidhu said.

As a tentative first step, it has already reduced the time taken for processing admission applications to around one to two years. Not satisfied with this, Sidhu says the commission will strive to bring down this period to less than a year.

The commission has also stepped up its interaction with professional bodies, the laity and the income-tax department in a bid to encourage more assessees to utilise itsservices.

The commission, which recently held workshops in Calcutta and Mumbai, says more are on the anvil in Pune and Ahmedabad. Last week, the commission had held a workshop with the income-tax department.

"It is shocking to know that even today many tax-payers are not aware of the commission's existence," Sidhu said. According to him, the dearth of tax consultants specialising in the commission's matters posed a big hurdle in popularising its role.

"The (tax) department can play a major role in assisting the commission by lending technical support," commission chairman NY Nayak said. The commission feels that an additional director of investigation or deputy director of investigation should be posted in every bench of the commission to speed up the investigation of applications.

The investigative officers posted at the commission are required to make inquiries while admitting applications. The commission routes details of the disclosure made by the tax-payer to income-tax officials for theircomment. The income-tax commissioner then tells the commission on his finding about the disclosure.

A three-member group set up to review the commission's progress has lauded the key role it has played over the years. The group, consisting of justice S Duggal, VV Badami and TS Srinivasan, has observed that the commission has achieved its objectives of collecting substantial revenue, building up a sense of confidence in the tax-payer's mind through quick disposal of cases and low collection costs.

The group, which submitted its report last year, has recommended that reports from the commissioner of income-tax should be sent in time. It has also recommended the setting up of two benches in Delhi and Ahmedabad.According to sources, the commission has already submitted its estimated cost (around Rs 60 lakh) to the government for setting up the benches.

The group had also recommended that vacancies in the commission should be filled up without delay. "The government takes its own time in filling up theposts," sources said. For instance, of the five posts of the deputy directors of investigation in Delhi, four are vacant.

The review group has also noted that the tax department's apprehension about the commission emerging as a parallel authority had led to considerable delay in sending reports.