CBDT Logs 56 Lakh Updated ITRs, Collects Rs 4,600 Crore In Taxes In 2 Years

CBDT Chief, Gupta, noted that the I-T department also established a demand management centre at Mysuru, Karnataka to focus on pending tax demands of more than Rs 1 crore

Gupta said that the govt decision to withdraw certain tax demands will help nearly 80 lakh unique taxpayers

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The Income Tax department has collected nearly Rs 4,600 crore in taxes from 56 lakh updated I-T returns filed by the taxpayers over the course of the last two years, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chief, Nitin Gupta, said. 

The official noted that the I-T department also established a demand management centre at Mysuru, Karnataka, in an interview with PTI TV. The centre will focus on disputed pending tax demands of more than Rs 1 crore, the body head said.

 “We are continuously improving the services and creating litigation free environment. We have come out with a facility for updation of return. 56 lakh updated returns updated and garnered around Rs 4,600 crore taxes from that,” Gupta stated in a post-Budget interview with the media agency. 

Notably, the Interim Budget 2024 also announced on Thursday that the government will withdraw outstanding small tax demands of up to Rs 25,000 till the 2014-15 period, with some demands dating back to 1962 as well. There are about 1.11 crore such disputed demands and the aggregate tax demand comes up to Rs 3,500-3,600 crore. 

Gupta noted that this decision will help nearly 80 lakh unique taxpayers. “Small tax demand we are tackling in that (withdrawal of demands) manner and large tax demand we are tackling separately (through demand management centre). We think this exercise would yield quite a lot of dividend to us and we will be able to manage the demand in a more meaningful way,” he added. 

Commenting on the Budget announcement for the withdrawal of disputed demands, the official said that majority of the demands were in the books. “There could be cases where the taxpayer has already paid the tax demand but it has not been updated on the system because it's an old demand when everything was manual. Some of the demand could be fictitious as well in that sense, because it is already been paid or not payable by taxpayer but no one has record of this,” he explained. 

Gupta stated that the decision has been taken to help the taxpayers and ease their problems. “We believe that a number of entries of that nature what the Finance Minister has spoken about in budget speech could be a crore or more of the number of entries and number of taxpayers could be 80 lakh or so unique ones. With this exercise the department can clean its books and it would be beneficial for taxpayers as well. The amount Rs 3,500 crore (which is being withdrawn) would be insignificant compared to what we are collecting annually Rs 19.45 lakh crore. This is the right time to do exercise on that front as well and focus on collection of big demand. The manpower is limited and the effort that we will put in to recover or rectify would be much more than the benefit,” he noted.