The department is working on expediting the process of tax refund and its payment system and reducing its duration from 16 days to 10 days. It is expected that the new deadline will be implemented in the current financial year. This time of tax refund will be reduced to 24 hours.
“On an average, it took 16 to 17 days to process tax returns in fy 2022-23. At the same time, in the previous financial year 2021-22, this time period was 26 days. We are now working on reducing this period to 10 days and simultaneously refunding. Refunds amounting to Rs 72,215 crore have been issued so far between April 1 and August 21 this fiscal. This includes Rs 37,775 crore corporate and Rs 34,406 crore tax refunds to individual taxpayers. After refunds, direct tax collections stood at Rs 5.88 lakh crore.
“Going by the current sentiment, this financial year, we are expecting the processing time to improve further and this will reduce the time taken for issuing refunds,” the official said. The official said that almost all the scrutiny and assessments related to returns are electronic and in this, cases are selected for scrutiny without any personal face-to-face between the taxpayer and the tax officials.
Target to give refund in 24 hours
The department is considering such an upgrade in the system so that refunds are made within 24 hours. “This target is ambitious but not impossible,” the official mentioned above said. We have issued refunds in 3 to 4 working days in cases of at least 10 to 12 per cent returns. We are confident that it will become the norm in the next few years.
Here’s how you can check your refund status:
Step 1- Login to the Income Tax Portal with user ID password.
Step 2- Go to My Account and click on ‘Refund/Demand Status’.
Step 3: All the information will be displayed on the screen. If the refund is not done, then you can check the situation immediately by going to ‘Reason’.
