Our Bureau The Finance Ministry on Friday ruled out extending the due date for filing Income Tax Return (ITR). December 31 was the extended due date for filing ITR by individuals and entities whose accounts need not to be audited.

Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj told the media: “I do not see any reason for extending due date (for filing ITR).” He said that by 3 pm on Friday, 5.62 crore returns had been filed. “Over 20 lakh returns filed on Friday itself with over 3.44 lakh in one hour,” he said. On December 31, 2020, a total of 4.93 crore returns were filed.

“I expect 20.25 lakh more returns to be filed by midnight on Friday,” Baja said, refuting the allegation that the system is not working properly. He said he has been personally tracking the functioning of portal. Normally, the due date for filing ITR by individual and entities is July 31. However, for the Assessment Year 2021-22 (Financial Year 2020-21), it was extended twice.

If not filed on or before December 31, the assessee will get three more months to do so but with costs. First, the assessee will need to pay ₹1,000 late filing fee, if the annual income is less than ₹5 lakh. For others, the late filing fee would be ₹5,000. This fee is over and above the penal interest for the tax due.

Direct tax collection

Bajaj said said that net direct tax collection as on date had reached ₹9.60-lakh crore, 58.5 per cent more than in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

After three instalments of advance tax and normal tax payment, net direct tax collections from April till date had exceeded the mop up last full FY21 which was ₹9.45-lakh crore. Bajaj expects the collection during the current fiscal year to exceed the Budget target of ₹11.60-lakh crore.

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