Senior officials of Ministry of Finance headed by Secretary, Revenue had a meeting with the Infosys team headed by Shri Salil Parekh, MD & CEO, Infosys on 16.12.2021, on the preparedness of the e-filing website during the peak filing period. As briefed by Infosys, steps taken in this regard include augmentation of the technical infrastructure and setting up of a dedicated war room to monitor the performance of the portal. On its part, Infosys assured about its preparedness to ensure a smooth filing season to instill confidence among the taxpayers.

As on 15^th December, 2021, 3.59 crore Income Tax Returns(ITRs) have been filed on the new e-filing portal of the Department. The number of ITRs filed per day has crossed 6 lakh and increasing everyday as the extended due date of 31^st December, 2021 is approaching.

Out of the 3.59 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22, 57.6% are ITR-1 (2.07 crore), 8.3% is ITR-2 (29.70 lakh), 9.4% is ITR-3 (33.61 lakh), 23.4% are ITR-4 (84.05 lakh), ITR-5 (3.12 lakh), ITR-6 (1.33 lakh) and ITR-7 (0.24 lakh). Nearly 52% of these ITRs have been filed using the online ITR form on the portal and the balance have been uploaded using the ITR created from the offline software utilities.

It is encouraging to note that 3.11 crore returns have been e-verified, out of which more than 2.69 crore are through Aadhaar based OTP. The process of e-verification through Aadhaar OTP and other methods is important for the Department to commence processing of the ITR and to issue refunds, if any.

Of the e-verified ITRs more than 2.38 crore ITRs have been processed and over 90.95 crore refunds for AY 2021-22 have been issued. Taxpayers are requested to ensure that the bank account selected for credit of refund must have their PAN linked at the bank to avoid refund failures.

Overall 9.83 lakh DSCs have been registered. In the simplified process of DSC registration any individual has to register his DSC only once and can use it across any entity where the individual is a partner, director etc without having to re-register again against each entity or role.

Over 37.92 lakh Statutory Forms have been submitted including 15.30 lakh TDS statements, 1.61 lakh Form 10A for registration of Trusts/institutions, 3.90 lakh Form 10E for arrears of salary, 51,302 Form 35 pertaining to filing of Appeal and 35,741 DTVSV Form 4 till 15th December, 2021. Over 8.88 lakh Form 15CA, 2.18 lakh Form 15CB, 26,753 Form 3CA, 2.67 lakh Form 3CB have been filed. More than 32.13 lakh e-PANs have been allotted online free of cost. The Legal Heir functionality has been enabled for registrations and compliance.

The Income Tax Department strongly urges all taxpayers to view their Form 26AS and Annual Information Statement (AIS) through the e-filing portal to verify the accuracy of TDS and Tax Payments and avail of pre-filling of ITRs. It is important for taxpayers to cross check the data in the AIS statement with their Bank passbook, interest certificate, Form 16 and Capital gains statement from brokerages in case of purchase and sale of equity/Mutual funds etc.

The Department has been issuing reminders to taxpayers through emails, SMS and media campaigns encouraging taxpayers to not wait till the last minute and file their Income Tax Returns without further delay. The Directorate of Systems is organizing webinars for frontline officials of the department (ASK Centres and TPS) to assist taxpayers in e-filing of ITRs. Directorate of Systems along with Infosys personnel are also engaging through the ICAI platform to raise awareness about resolution of problems faced in the process of e-filing. Educational Videos have been released on the YouTube handle of ITD for guidance of taxpayers.

All taxpayers who are yet to file their Income Tax returns for AY 2021-22 are requested to file their returns at the earliest.

E-filing compliance: taxpayers should verify tax statements, complete e-verification and link PAN to bank account before deadline. The Department reports widespread adoption of the new e filing portal, technical readiness with vendor support, predominant use of Aadhaar OTP for e verification, and emphasizes that e verification is required to process ITRs and issue refunds; taxpayers must ensure PAN is linked to the bank account for refund credit. The portal also supports one time DSC registration, e PAN allotment, Legal Heir functionality and filing of multiple statutory forms, while outreach and assistance are being provided through webinars, videos and professional engagement to encourage timely filing.