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 "Income tax")
The low number of ITRs filed by assessees has been one of the major concerns of the revenue authorities, which is gradually being addressed
Record 81.8 million income tax returns (ITRs) were filed till December 31 for the assessment year 2023-24, up nine per cent over 75.1 million in the corresponding period of 2022-23.
According to the income tax site, 79.9 million returns have been verified and 77.7 million processed during the period.
The low number of ITRs filed by assessees has been one of the major concerns of the revenue authorities, which is gradually being addressed. For instance, 58.7 million returns were filed by income tax assessees during the assessment year 2018-19, which rose to 66.9 million the next year. The Covid-hit 2020-21 year saw a decline to 63.9 million and those again rose to 67.5 million in the 2021-22 assessment year, according to data provided by the finance ministry from time to time.
According to a statement by the finance ministry, the total number of audit reports and other forms filed during the period is 16 million against 14.3 million filed a year back.
It is also observed that a large number of taxpayers did their due diligence by comparing data of their financial transactions by viewing their Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS), says the statement.
A substantial portion of the data for all ITRs was prefilled with data pertaining to salary, interest, dividend, personal information, tax payment including TDS related information, brought forward losses, MAT credit etc to further ease compliance by taxpayers. The facility was used extensively, resulting in smoother and faster filing of ITRs, the ministry said.
Further, a digital e-pay tax payment platform – TIN 2.0 was made fully functional on the e-filing portal, replacing the OLTAS payment system during the current financial year.
This enabled user-friendly options for e-payment of taxes such as internet banking, NEFT/RTGS, OTC, debit card, payment gateway and UPI. TIN 2.0 platform has enabled real-time credit of taxes to taxpayers which made ITR filing easier and faster, the ministry pointed out.
To encourage taxpayers to file their ITRs and forms early, over 1.03 billion outreaches were made through targeted e-mail, SMS and other creative campaigns.
Such concerted efforts led to fruitful results.
The e-filing helpdesk team handled approximately 2.74 million queries from taxpayers till December 31 this assessment year, supporting the taxpayers proactively during the peak filing periods.
Support from the help desk was provided to taxpayers through inbound calls, outbound calls, live chats, WebEx and co-browsing sessions.
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Note: * Till December 31
Source: Finance Ministry
First Published: Jan 01 2024 | 8:30 PM IST
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