NEW DELHI: The income
tax
(I-T) department on Sunday said that it has issued refunds of Rs 51,531 crore to nearly 23
lakh
taxpayers between April and August 23, pointing to a sharp decline so far in the year.
Between April and August 25, 2020,
income
tax refunds were paid to over 25.5 lakh taxpayers and added up to Rs 95,853 crore. The
government
did not give the comparative data, but officials have in the past blamed the glitches in the tax portal for a slowdown in payments.
In a series of tweets, the department said that, so far, 93% of the refund claims made in returns for
assessment
year 2020-21 (FY2019-20) have been processed. “In the past week, refunds of over Rs 15,269 crore have been issued which will be credited to taxpayers shortly,” it said.
Last year, the government had focused on refunds, which rose 42% to Rs 2.6 lakh crore and were paid to nearly 2.4 crore taxpayers. “It may be noted that this included the refunds expedited in a series of measures providing relief to taxpayers during the pandemic,” the income tax department tweeted late Sunday evening.
Authorities are communicating with taxpayers to seek responses in cases where refunds have not been paid due to adjustments, defects, or bank account mismatch so that the payout can be expedited.
“The department requests taxpayers to respond online quickly, so that ITRs (income tax returns) in such cases of AY 20-21 can be processed expeditiously. The department has also commenced processing of ITRs 1 & 4 for AY 2021-22 (FY2020-21) and refunds, if any, will be issued directly to the bank account of the taxpayer,” it added.