The Government has taken a number of measures in recent years to maintain continuity and stability of taxation, further simplify and rationalise various provisions to reduce the compliance burden, promote the entrepreneurial spirit and provide tax relief to citizens. This was stated by the Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

The Minister stated that the details of the some such measures are as per ANNEXURE.

Giving out more details, the Minister stated that the maximum, minimum and average amount of income tax returns filed and processed by the Income Tax e-filing portal within a span of 24 hours for A.Y. 2022-23 is as under:

• Lowest number of ITR filing in a day: 01(on 10^th April 2022 – i.e. on the day ITR 1 & 4 deployed)
• Highest number of ITR filing in a day: 72,42,156 (on 31^st July 2022, i.e., the due date for filing the returns u/s 139(1))
• Average number of ITR filing in a day: 2,82,559 (Total returns filed from 10^th April to 2022 to 31^st December 2022: 7,51,60,817. No of days: 266. 7,51,60,817/266 = 2,82,559)

Moreover, the Minister stated, for A.Y. 2022-23, 3,02,40,121 ITRs (i.e. 42.92% of total returns) were processed within a span of 24 hours of furnishing of ITR.

Giving out more information, the Minister stated that it is a continuous and ongoing endeavour to improve the tax payer portal (e-filing portal). Some of the steps taken in this regard include roll out of online tax payment system (TIN 2.0) on which till now 19 banks have onboarded. Further this portal made available new payment modes to taxpayers for payment of taxes. This has led to faster credit of taxes paid. Further, educational videos and FAQs are continuously being uploaded on the portal to create awareness among taxpayers on relevant topics for easier tax compliance. Recently, facility for co-browsing has been enabled on the portal for providing help to the taxpayers by the helpdesk team in respect of issues related to portal.

Further, the Minister stated that the common Income Tax Return (“CTR”) has been proposed as a common return form for all persons except Trusts. The proposed Return aims to bring ease of filing returns and reduce the time for filing the ITR by individuals and non-business-type taxpayers considerably. The taxpayers will not be required to see the schedules that do not apply to them. Schedules have been designed smartly in a user-friendly manner with better arrangement, logical flow, and with increased scope of pre-filling. It will also facilitate the proper reconciliation of third-party data available with the Income-tax Department vis a vis the data to be reported in the ITR to reduce the compliance burden on the taxpayers. Draft of the CTR was uploaded in public domain inviting comments from all stakeholders.

Income Tax department has the following grievance redressal mechanisms:

• e-Nivaran module on e-filing portal
• High Pitched Assessment committees in each Pr. CCIT charge
• Tax Payer Charter Cells (TPCC) in each Pr. CCIT charge.
• CPGRAM on the DARPG portal.

The Minister further stated that strengthening the grievance redressal mechanism is an ongoing and continuous process. With enhanced monitoring and reducing the response time to the various grievances filed by taxpayer, an impetus has been given in the various grievance redressal mechanisms. The increased digitalisation of procedures under the Act has also contributed to the improvement in the disposal of taxpayer grievances, the Minister stated.

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