I-T Department Call Centre Trying To Resolve 35 Lakh Refund Cases ‘On Hold’ For Multiple Reasons, Says CBDT Chairperson

The Central Board of Direct Taxes head informed that the tax authorities are trying to get in contact with such individuals whose refunds are held up due to mismatch and validation of bank accounts.

As per the official data for the assessment year 2023-24, overall 7.27 crore ITRs (Income Tax Returns) were filed, out of which 7.15 crore were verified by the taxpayers and the department has processed 6.80 crore ITRs.

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Nearly 35 lakh cases seeking refunds are currently held up with the Income Tax Department due to mismatch and validation of the taxpayers’ bank account details, CBDT Chairperson Nitin Gupta revealed on Tuesday. 

The Central Board of Direct Taxes head informed that the tax authorities are trying to get in contact with such individuals whose refunds are held up through a special call centre, reported PTI. “We want to credit the refunds to the correct bank accounts of the taxpayers quickly,” he said. Notably, CBDT is the administrative body of the I-T Department. 

On being asked about taxpayers receiving old demands relating to years around 2010-11 for such refunds, Gupta said that the tax department has undergone a technology change around 2011, when it shifted from paper-based registers to computers, and therefore some of these old demands were coming up in the accounts of certain individuals. “We have started a unique demand management facilitation system about a year back for all such cases where refunds are held up due to a variety of reasons. An email is triggered to the taxpayer saying they will get a call three days from the dispatch of the email from a particular number and following this conversation, the issues are being resolved,” he said, while conversing with the media. 

Gupta also informed that the I-T department has managed to resolve 1.4 lakh inquiries related to the matter over the last year ‘following this Mysuru-based call centre interaction and the taxpayer can either accept the demand or contest it’. He added that initially, this call centre was functioning for four regions of Karnataka and Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, and the north-west region but the tax authorities now intend to expand it further to cover other regions and cities. 

Elaborating on the reasons behind the held-up, Gupta said, “Apart from the record update at the end of the department or the assessing officer, there are two more reasons for refunds being held up. In some cases refunds are held up because the taxpayer has not validated their bank account, either the bank has merged or the assessee has changed cities and the IFSC has changed. We urge the taxpayers to get their bank accounts validated. We have about 35 lakh cases where such mismatch has been detected and we are in touch with such taxpayers through official communication channels and the call centre as well.”

As per the official data for the assessment year 2023-24, overall 7.27 crore ITRs (Income Tax Returns) were filed, out of which 7.15 crore were verified by the taxpayers and the department has processed 6.80 crore ITRs. Nearly 93.5 per cent of properly verified ITRs have been processed till now. 

With regards to the ITR-U or income tax return-updated, introduced by the Indian Government in Budget 2022-23, Gupta noted that the department has so far gathered Rs 1,300 crore in additional tax after taxpayers filed 16.8 lakh such returns during the current fiscal year. 

Commenting on the new tax regime, Gupta added, “We find that the corporates have filed about 60 per cent of their profits under the new tax regime during the last fiscal and we also hope that 60-70 per cent of individual taxpayers will shift to this new tax regime.” The new tax regime tries to remove multiple deductions and claims and gives a flat and lesser tax rate to the taxpayers, the report said. So far, the department has collected Rs 9.57 lakh crore in net revenue under direct taxes after Rs 1.50 lakh crore was issued in refunds during the current fiscal, Gupta stated. 

The 2023-24 budget set the direct tax collection at just a little over Rs 18.23 lakh crore, higher by 9.75 per cent from Rs 16.61 lakh crore collected in the previous fiscal year. Gupta remained confident that the department could exceed the budget estimates for direct tax at the end of the current fiscal year in March 2024.