Income tax refunds of ₹34,820 crores have been issued in connection with 37,55,428 cases.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has so far issued over ₹1,29,190 crores in refunds to over 39.49 lakh taxpayers from April till November 3, stated the Income Tax Department on Wednesday (November 4). According to the I-T Department, income tax refunds of ₹34,820 crores have been issued in connection with 37,55,428 cases and corporate tax refunds of ₹94,370 crores have been issued in over 1.93 lakh cases. The I-T department posted on Twitter saying, “CBDT issues refunds of over ₹1,29,190 crore to more than 39.49 lakh taxpayers between April 1, 2020, to November 3, 2020. Income tax refunds of ₹34,820 crores have been issued in 37,55,428 cases and corporate tax refunds of ₹94,370 crores have been issued in 1,93,059 cases.
The Ministry of Finance had earlier extended the deadline for filing returns by individual taxpayers for the financial year 2019-20 till December 31. The CBDT had earlier issued a notification on June 24, 2020, extending the due date for all Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for the financial year 2019-20 to November 30, 2020. This came in view of providing relief to taxpayers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement, the CBDT stated that due date for furnishing of ITRs for the other taxpayers [for whom the due date (i.e. before the extension by the said notification) as per the Act was July 31, 2020] has been extended to December 31, 2020.”
The statement added that the due date for furnishing of ITRS for “the taxpayers (including their partners) who are required to get their accounts audited [for whom the due date as per the I-T Act is October 31, 2020] has been extended to January 31, 2021. This means that the last date for taxpayers who have to get their accounts audited or those who are required to furnish the reports of domestic or international transactions is January 2021. The earlier deadline was October 31, 2020. Experts noted that the much-needed extension of deadlines will provide headroom to taxpayers for completing their compliance requirements but facing issues in the pandemic.