IT dept issues refunds of over Rs 1.14 Lakh crore to 1.97 crore taxpayers

New Delhi: Equipped with advanced digital infrastructure, the Income Tax (I-T) department issued refunds of over Rs 1.14 lakh crore to more than 1.97 crore taxpayers in the current financial year till August 31, 2022.

"CBDT issues refunds of over Rs. 1.14 lakh crore to more than 1.97 crore taxpayers between 1st April, 2022 to 31st Aug, 2022. Income tax refunds of Rs. 61,252 crore have been issued in 1,96,00,998 cases & corporate tax refunds of Rs. 53,158 crore have been issued in 1,46,871 cases," the tax department said on Saturday in a tweet.

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is the apex policy-making body for direct taxes such as personal income tax and corporate tax.

With the rise in digitisation, the tax department has transformed its tax filing and refund processes. It has substantially cut tax return filing and processing time thus leading to timely collection of revenue for the government. This has markedly improved taxpayer experience.

Naveen Wadhwa, deputy general manager of Taxmann, said that in a 15-days window taxpayers are now filing the return and getting refunds, if any, following checking and processing by the tax department.

He recalled that this year it was for the first time in many years when the tax-filing due date was not extended as the robust IT system put in place by the department worked smoothly despite heavy load.

"Using its digital resources, the tax department has substantially improved collection of information, preparation of returns, filing of returns, processing them and issuing refunds," Wadhwa added.

As many as 5.83 crore income tax returns (ITRs) were filed till 31st July, 2022 (due date) for assessment year 2022-23. The surge of filing ITRs peaked on 31st July, 2022 (due date for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases) with over 72.42 lakh ITRs being filed on a single day.(UNI)