Income Tax— With the deadline for filing Income Tax Returns (ITR) for the assessment year 2024-25 now passed, 7.28 crore taxpayers have submitted their returns by July 31, 2024. As taxpayers await their ITR refunds, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made significant claims regarding the speed of refund processing.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Key Announcement
Addressing the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that taxpayers are now receiving their ITR refunds within 10 days of filing their returns. She announced that the average time for processing ITRs has significantly decreased from 93 days in the financial year 2013-14 to just 10 days in the financial year 2023-24.
“The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has been systematically working on the income tax refund process, and we have consistently improved our performance over the last three years,” Sitharaman said. “We have reduced the average processing time of returns from 93 days in 2013-14 to 10 days in 2023-24.”
Are Taxpayers Really Receiving Refunds Within 10 Days?
According to Finance Minister Sitharaman, taxpayers are now receiving their refunds within just 10 days. However, this claim holds true for some cases but not all. When filing ITR, taxpayers have various forms available to them, such as ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3, and so on. The department is prioritizing the processing of ITR-1 forms. As a result, taxpayers who filed their returns using the ITR-1 form are receiving their refunds within 10 days.
It cannot be denied that there has been a significant improvement in the speed of tax refunds over the past few years, especially in the last three years. However, the claim of receiving refunds within 10 days may not be accurate in all cases.
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