Ministry of Finance

Posted On: 12 FEB 2019 5:33PM by PIB Delhi

The level of income-tax compliance has continuously increased over the last three Financial Years, which is reflected in the number of Income-Tax Returns filed over this period, as given hereunder: -

S.No.	Financial Year	Total Number of Income Tax Returns filed	Percentage increase over previous Financial Year
(a)	(b)	(c)	(d)
1	2015-16	4.63 Crore	14.6%
2	2016-17	5.57 Crore	20.3%
3	2017-18	6.86 Crore	23.2%

The total amount of refunds made to the assessees during the period under reference is as under:

Financial Year		Refund (Rs. Crore)
2015-16		122271
2016-17		162661
2017-18		151602
2018-19  (up to 2ndFebruary,
2019)		143117

As on 15^th January 2019, 3,07,485 returns including 36,616 cases of refunds are pending for scrutiny.  The scrutiny of these cases is to be completed by 31.12.2019. A total of 16,21,848 claims of refund (including non-scrutiny cases) are pending for issue as on 31st January, 2019.

Since only about 0.5% of the returns is selected for scrutiny, refunds are issued expeditiously at the time of processing itself for the bulk of the taxpayers. With regard to the pending scrutiny cases, the Assessing Officers have already been advised in the Central Action Plan for 2018-19 to expedite assessment in such cases, especially cases selected for “limited scrutiny”, so that resultant refunds, if any, can be issued at the earliest.

This was stated by Shri Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State for Finance in written reply to a Question in Rajya Sabha today.

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DSM/KA

Income-tax refunds: majority processed promptly; scrutiny backlog to be expedited to release pending refunds. Income-tax refunds are largely issued at processing because a small fraction of returns are selected for scrutiny; aggregate refund disbursements and rising return filings are reported. Pending scrutiny cases and numerous refund claims remain outstanding, and Assessing Officers have been directed under the Central Action Plan to expedite scrutiny-especially limited scrutiny-so resultant refunds can be issued promptly.