The Central Board Direct Taxes (CBDT achieved significant success in delivery of taxpayer services in Financial Year 2015-16, a record setting year in delivery of taxpayer services. The Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) at Bengaluru processed more than 4.14 crore Income Tax returns, an increase of over 35% over the previous year. The CPC also issued over 1.61 crore refunds above ₹ 100 to taxpayers, an increase of more than 47% over the previous year.

The CPC issued refunds to the tune of ₹ 37, 870 crore in an automated manner of which 67% were issued within 30 days. This demonstrates CBDT’s commitment to faster and more efficient taxpayer service while saving costs on account of interest outgo. During the current financial year the Income Tax Department has issued refunds over ₹ 1,17,000 crores. This figure is likely to further increase as banks reconcile the accounts.

CBDT requests taxpayers who have not received their refunds to immediately check whether they have submitted their ITR-Verification (ITR-V) form to CPC Bengaluru. They may also check whether have responded to any notice under Section 245 regarding outstanding tax arrears, or notice under Section 139 (9) regarding any defect in their return. Taxpayers can also electronically verify their return using Electronic Verification Code (EVC) instead of submitting ITR-V by post so that the process is completed faster. Almost 79 lakh taxpayers have used this facility.

Taxpayers also reposed faith in CBDT’s e-governance initiatives by electronically filing a whopping 4.34 crore Income Tax returns in FY 2015-16 representing an increase of over 26.83% over the previous year. In addition, over 73.16 lakh other online forms were filed with an increase of nearly 100% compared to the previous year.

CBDT is committed to ensuring world class taxpayer services through its e-governance programs and increasing the coverage and scope of electronic filing and processing of various forms and applications.

Taxpayer services expansion improves refund processing and urges use of electronic verification to speed tax refunds. Record improvement in delivery of taxpayer services in FY 2015-16 was driven by increased electronic filing and centralized processing at the CPC Bengaluru, which processed a substantially larger volume of returns and issued a marked increase in automated refunds, most dispatched within thirty days; taxpayers are advised to verify ITR V submission or use electronic verification to expedite refund processing.