Income Tax Return: Centre Plans to Reduce Refund Processing Time to 10 Days

Income Tax Refund: As per the data from the income tax department, about 6.91 crore ITRs have been filed for the current assessment year 2023-24. Out of these, 4.82 crore ITRs have been processed.

New Delhi: Here comes a big update for general taxpayers. The Income Tax department is planning to reduce the processing time for tax refunds from the current 16 days to just 10 days, a report by Business Standard claimed. The report further stated that the new timeline is expected to be implemented during the current fiscal year. As per the report, the income tax department is working on a new mechanism to reduce the average period of processing and issuing income tax refunds to taxpayers.

“In 2022-23, the average time taken for processing tax returns was 16-17 days. It was 26 days in the preceding year, 2021-22. Now we are looking at processing tax returns in 10 days and issuing refunds simultaneously,” a government official was quoted as saying by Business Standard. However, India.com couldn’t verify the report independently.

Last month, CBDT Chairman Nitin Gupta had said that the average time taken for issuing refunds by the income tax department has been brought down to great extent and in 2022-23, over 80 per cent of refunds were issued in the first 30 days of filing of returns.

He also added that the work of processing income tax returns (ITRs) has been “expedited” as the tax department is implementing technology in a big way and was working to ensure ‘ease of doing business’ for the taxpayers by promoting voluntary compliance.

As per the data from the income tax department, about 6.91 crore ITRs have been filed for the current assessment year 2023-24. Out of these, 4.82 crore ITRs have been processed.

Taxpayers must note that from April 1 to August 21, tax refunds of Rs 72,215 crore have already been issued, including Rs 37,775 crore to companies and Rs 34,406 crore to individuals. The gross collection of direct taxes, that includes both personal income tax and corporate tax, stood at Rs 6.6 lakh crore, the report added.

There was a notable rise in the percentage of tax returns in the previous fiscal year. “However, this financial year, we are hoping to see a further jump in processing time to the extent that it could further shorten the timeline of the issuing refunds,” another official told the financial daily.

The income tax department said it is implementing new electronic approach for verifications and assessments of tax returns, and the process is managed via an anonymous back office by tax experts and officials, with no direct personal interactions between taxpayers and officers, according to the report.

I-T officials said the tax department is planning to release refunds as soon as tax returns are processed and this represents a departure from the previous practice of holding refunds of companies to bolster revenue collection.

How to Check Income Tax Refund Status

• Taxpayers can check the income tax refund status through e-filing website — https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/.
• For this, they need their PAN and Aadhaar details apart from the registered mobile number to receive the OTPs.
• On the home page, taxpayers need to log in to the account using PAN details, OTP and by entering the Captcha.
• After logging in, taxpayers need to click on the e-file option.
• Then, they need to go to the income tax returns tab and click on the View Filed Returns option