New Delhi: To provide relief to corporate and individual taxpayers during the lockdown, the Income Tax department announced that all pending tax refunds up to 5 lakhs will be issued on an immediate basis. According to an official, release this move will benefit over 14 lakh taxpayers. Apart from this, the department has also decided to issue all pending GST and Custom refunds which would provide benefit to around 1 lakh business entities, including MSME. The total refund granted will be approximately Rs. 18,000 crores. The release stated-  'In the context of the COVID-19 situation and with a view to providing immediate relief to the business entities and individuals, it has been decided to issue all the pending income-tax refunds up to Rs. 5 lakhs, immediately. This would benefit around 14 lakh taxpayers.'

The cases of COVID-19 are on the rise and so far, Indian has recorded 5095 confirmed cases. The country is currently in a 21-day lockdown which started on March 24. This is having a deep impact on the economy. Recent reports also hinted at an increase in unemployment by 23 percent. Last month the government had released a stimulus package of 1.7 trillion rupees ($22.5 billion) for food security measures to help poor households and to help daily wage earners and small businesses. According to a recent report by Reuters, the government may soon announce a second stimulus package especially to help small and medium businesses.

In separate news, the IT department has also warned taxpayers to be careful of a possible breach of their e-filing account and report such an instance to the police cybersecurity wing. A senior official said the advisory has been issued in the wake of increased vulnerability and attacks on online systems as the country and the world battle the COVID-19 pandemic and more online systems are being used due to a major scaling down of the human interface.