I-T Department settles 10.2 lakh refund worth ₹4,250 crore in 7 days

The Income-Tax Department on Wednesday reported settling of refunds worth ₹4n250 crore in a week. This is following the government’s decision last week on issuing refund up to ₹5 lakh immediately.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said it has already issued over 10.2 lakh refunds totalling ₹4,250 crore as on April 14. These refunds are over and above the 2.50 crore refunds already issued in FY 19-20 till March 31 totalling to ₹1.84-lakh crore.

CBDT further said that about 1.75 lakh more refunds are in the process of issuance in this week. These refunds would get credited directly to taxpayers’ bank accounts in 5-7 business days from issuance. However, in around 1.74 lakh cases, email responses are awaited from taxpayers regarding reconciliation with their outstanding tax demand for which a reminder email has been sent asking them to respond within seven days so that the refund can be processed accordingly.

Income-tax refund arises when taxes paid are higher than the actual tax liability (including interest). It could be in the form of advance tax, self-assessment tax, tax deducted at source, foreign tax credit etc.

A taxpayer is supposed to ensure that the return is electronically verified through Aadhaar number OTP, EVC generated through bank account or physically verified by posting the signed ITR-V (acknowledgement) to Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) within 120 days of filing the return. Normally a taxpayer has a time limit of 120 days, from the date of return filing, to verify his returns. The earlier one gets the verification done, the earlier the CPC will process one’s returns. Once the returns are processed by the CPC at the primary level for arithmetical errors etc, refund will be issued to the taxpayer.

Meanwhile, CBDT has appealed to taxpayers to respond immediately to mail regarding additional information in Income Tax Returns. It has also taken note of some questions in social media and other media with regards to CBDT’s computerised email to the taxpayers to respond within 7 days for enabling the department to process refund.

In this regard, it said that these are the necessary routine process related communications to the taxpayers to seek response on defective ITRs, prima facie adjustments and where confirmation is sought about certain claims made by them. In all such cases, a quick response from the taxpayer would enable the I-T Department to process their refunds expeditiously, the board said.

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