In a press release dated 03.07.2020, the Ministry of Finance has stated that the Income Tax Department has refunded Rs. 62,361 crore to more than 20 lakh taxpayers amid COVID-19 pandemic from April 8, 2020 to June 30, 2020.
The press note refers to Government’s decision releases via a press note dated 8th April according to which all pending income tax refunds up to Rs 5 lakh to be issued immediately with a view to provide immediate relief to the business entities and individuals amid COVID-19 outbreak.
The press release does not mention the announcement by Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitaraman on 13th May while announcing the First Tranche Special Economic Package and Measures for Relief amid COVID-19 to that the pending income tax refunds to charitable trusts and non-corporate businesses and professions including proprietorship, partnership and LLPs and cooperatives shall be issued immediately.
The refunds were issued at a speed of 76 cases per minute from 8th April to 30th June, 2020 which covers more than 20.44 lakh cases. The aggregate amount of refund is more than 62,361 crore in this 56 weekdays period.
In pursuance to the Government’s decision vide Press Note dated April 8th, 2020 to issue pending income tax refunds in order to help taxpayers in a COVID-19 pandemic situation, the Income Tax Department has issued tax refunds at a speed of. During this period of just 56 weekdays, the Central Board of Direct taxes (CBDT) has issued refunds in more than 20.44 lakh cases amounting to more than Rs. 62,361 crore.
Income tax refunds amounting to Rs. 23,453.57 crore have been issued in 19,07,853 cases to taxpayers and corporate tax refunds amounting to Rs. 38,908.37 crore have been issued in 1,36,744 cases to taxpayers during this period.
The press note further states that the entire amount of refund has been issued completely electronically and directly deposited into the bank accounts of the taxpayers without visiting the income tax office.
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In February 2019, the Income Tax department had announced that effective 1st March 2019 all the income-tax refund will be made in e-mode only. That is income-tax refund will not be made in cheques and will be directly credited to the assessee’s bank account. For this purpose, linking bank accounts with the PAN of the assessee was made mandatory and failing which no refund will be made to the assessee.
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Hence, paper refund - refund by cheques, by draft has been restricted by the income tax department. Only in exceptional circumstances, paper refund or refund by cheques will be issued and that too after due approval, as instructed by the CBDT in this regard.
CBDT reiterated that taxpayers should provide an immediate response to emails of the Department so that refunds in their cases too could be processed and issued right away. Such emails of I-T Department seek taxpayers to confirm their outstanding demand, their bank account number and reconciliation of defect/mismatch prior to the issue of refund. In all such cases, quick responses from the taxpayers would enable the I-T Department to process their refunds expeditiously.
Download copy of the CBDT’s Press Note dated 03.07.2020
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