Today, the income tax department said that refunds worth more than Rs 80,000 crore have so far been issued to 24.64 lakh taxpayers during the ongoing financial year.
“CBDT has, so far, issued refunds of over Rs 88,652 crore to more than 24.64 lakh taxpayers from 1st April 2020 onwards. Income tax refunds of Rs. 28,180 crore have been issued in 23,05,726 cases & corporate tax refunds of Rs.60,472 crore have been issued in 1,58,280 cases,” the income tax department said.
The continued spread of COVID-19 and the imposition of lockdown are the main concerns kept in mind, said the finance ministry. Emphasis was laid on releasing all refunds at the earliest possible time. The prioritization is on all refund-related issues, and the likelihood of completion is by 31st August 2020.
The income tax department has asked taxpayers to provide an immediate response to emails of I-T department in order to facilitate faster processing of refunds.
Since only about 0.5% of the returns are selected for scrutiny, refunds are issued expeditiously at the time of processing itself for the bulk of the taxpayers. Refunds are now directly credited to bank accounts of taxpayers.