72,42,156 Income Tax Return (ITR) filed on July 31, 2022

In recent years, the government has taken a number of steps to maintain continuity and stability in taxation, further simplify and rationalise numerous regulations to lessen the burden of compliance, encourage entrepreneurship, and give citizens tax relief. This was said in a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha today by Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary.

The Minister said that the ANNEXURE contains more information about some of these measures.

The Minister provided additional information, stating that for A.Y. 2022–2023, the maximum, minimum, and average numbers of income tax returns filed and processed by the income tax e-filing system within a 24-hour period are as follows:

• ITRs filed in the fewest amount of days: 1. (on 10th April 2022 – i.e. on the day ITR 1 & 4 deployed)
• Maximum number of ITRs filed in a single day: 72,42,156 (on July 31, 2022, the deadline for filing returns under section 139(1))
• ITR filings on average total 2,82,559 each day (total returns submitted from 10 April 2022 to 31 December 2022: 7,51,60,817). 266 days in total. 7,51,60,817/266 = 2,82,559)
• The Minister added that during A.Y. 2022–23, 3,02,40,121 ITRs—or 42.92% of all returns—were processed within 24 hours of ITR submission.

The Minister clarified that efforts are being made continuously and continually to enhance the tax payer portal (e-filing portal). Among the actions done in this direction is the rollout of the TIN 2.0 online tax payment system, which now has 19 banks as participants. Also, this portal provided additional ways for taxpayers to pay their taxes. Faster crediting of taxes paid is the result of this. Moreover, instructional films and frequently asked questions (FAQs) are consistently posted on the portal to raise taxpayer awareness of pertinent subjects and facilitate simpler tax compliance. Co-browsing has recently been made possible on the portal so that the helpdesk personnel can assist taxpayers with portal-related concerns.

The Minister added that the Common Income Tax Return (CTR), with the exception of Trusts, has been proposed as a common return form for all individuals. The proposed Return intends to make it simpler for individuals and other non-business types of taxpayers to file returns and significantly cut down on the time required to do so. The schedules that do not pertain to the taxpayers will not be made available to them. Schedules have been cleverly created to be more user-friendly, with improved organisation, a logical flow, and more pre-filling options. In order to lessen the compliance burden on taxpayers, it will also make it easier to properly reconcile third-party data that is available to the Income-tax Department with data that must be reported in the ITR. A public draught of the CTR was released, requesting feedback from all stakeholders.

The following methods exist within the Income Tax Department for handling complaints:

• E-filing portal’s e-Nivaran module
• Taxpayer Charter Cells (TPCC) in each Pr. CCIT charge, High Pitched Assessment committees.
• The DARPG portal’s CPGRAM.

The Minister added that improving the grievance redressal procedure is a continual and continuing exercise. The numerous grievance redressal processes have gained momentum thanks to improved monitoring and a decrease in the response time to the different concerns lodged by taxpayers. According to the Minister, the improved resolution of taxpayer complaints is also a result of the greater digitization of Act-required procedures.