New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) - In a last minute decision, the government today extended the deadline for filing Income Tax Returns (ITRs) till August 5, a top official today said.

The official twitter handle of the department said the move was made "in view of difficulties faced by taxpayers."

A senior official of the department said the decision to extend the deadline ending today was taken after a meeting of the revenue department and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) was held in the finance ministry today.

The last minute inundation and heavy logging on the official website of the e-filing portal of the department led to the extension of five more days for filing the ITRs by taxpayers.

The department, till yesterday, however had maintained that no extension would be given as already over 2 crore returns have been received and no major glitches on the portal had been detected.

But, the situation changed today and the extension was declared.

This time, the linking of the Aadhaar number with the PAN (Permanent Account Number) of a taxpayer has been made mandatory for filing of an ITR, beginning July 1.

The department has also asked taxpayers to declare cash deposits made in bank accounts aggregating to ₹ 2 lakh or more, post demonetisation between November 9-December 30 last year, in the ITRs.

The ITRs to be filed by July 31 pertain to 2016-17 fiscal or assessment year 2017-18.

Aadhaar-PAN linking mandatory: ITR filing deadline extended and specified demonetisation-era cash deposits must be declared. Government extended the ITR filing deadline by five days to August 5 because of heavy traffic and technical difficulties on the e filing portal. The extension follows a revenue department and CBDT meeting. The department confirmed two compliance requirements for ITR filers: mandatory Aadhaar PAN linking from July 1 and declaration of demonetisation period cash deposits above a specified aggregation when filing returns for the 2016-17 fiscal period.