No plan to extend deadline for filing income tax returns: Revenue Secretary

The government is not considering extending the last date for filing income tax returns as it expects most returns to come in by the due date of July 31, a top official said on Friday.

Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said over 2.3 crore income returns were filed by July 20 for fiscal 2021-22 and the numbers are picking up.

Last fiscal (2020-21), about 5.89 crore ITRs (Income Tax Returns) were filed by the extended due date of December 31, 2021.

"People thought the routine now is that dates will be extended. So they were a little slow in filling the returns initially but now on a daily basis, we are getting between 15 lakhs to 18 lakh returns. This will slightly go up to 25 lakh to 30 lakh returns," he told PTI.

Typically, return filers wait till the last day to file returns.

"Last time 9-10 per cent filed on last day. Last time, we had over 50 lakh (filing returns on the last date). This time, I have told my people to be ready for 1 crore (returns being filed on the last day)," he said.

As per I-T rules, the deadline for filing ITRs of a fiscal by individual taxpayers who do not need to get their accounts audited is July 31 of the subsequent financial year.

Through ITR, a person is supposed to submit to the Income Tax Department of India. It contains information about the person's income and the taxes to be paid on it during the year.

The Income Tax Department has prescribed 7 types of ITR forms, whose applicability will depend on the nature and amount of income and the type of taxpayer.

The tax department's new income tax filing portal is now very robust to take the increased loads.

"So far, there is no thinking of extending the last date of filing," he said.

Bajaj said the feedback being received from taxpayers is that the return form has become very easy to file and that refunds are also being made in a very quick time.

On some complaining about difficulty in filing returns, he said 2.3 crore people have already filed returns without any complaints.

"Previously 50,000 people were filing returns daily and now this number has gone up to 20 lakh. I am confident that returns will go up in the next few days and people will file their returns," he said.

Over the last two financial years, the government had extended the deadline for filing ITRs to ease compliance for taxpayers battling covid pandemic.