More Than 3 Crore Income Tax Returns Filed As Deadline Nears

More than three crore taxpayers have filed their income tax returns (ITR) for the assessment year 2021-22 on the new e-filing portal of the income tax department as on December 3, 2021.

In fact, the number of ITRs filed per day is over 4 lakh and increasing everyday as the last date for filing returns, i.e. December 31, 2021 is approaching.

According to official sources, ITR filing went up to 3.03 crore for the assessment year 2021-22 with 58.98 per cent of these are ITR1 (1.78 crore), 8 per cent is ITR2 (24.42 lakh), 8.7 per cent is ITR3 (26.58 lakh), while 23.12 per cent of these are ITR4 (70.07 lakh), ITR5 (2.14 lakh), ITR6 (0.91 lakh) and ITR7 (0.15 lakh) combined.

More than 50 per cent of these returns have been filed with the help of online ITR form on the e-filing portal, official sources added.

The process of e-verification through Aadhaar one time password (OTP) and other methods is important for the income tax department to commence processing of the ITR and to issue refunds, if any. It is encouraging to note that 2.69 crore returns have been e-verified, out of which more than 2.28 crore are through Aadhaar based OTP, a statement issued by the finance ministry said.

In November, 48 per cent of the verified ITRs 1, 2 and 4 had been processed on the same day. Of the verified ITRs, more than 2.11 crore ITRs have been processed and over 82.80 lakh refunds for AY 2021-22 have been issued.

The department has urged those taxpayers who are yet to file their returns, to do so at the earliest to avoid last minute rush.