The Income Tax Department on September 1, released data on the total Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed for 2018-19 financial or 2019-20 assessment year. This was revealed on the day the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) made it clear that it will no more extend the deadline for filing of ITRs. However, earlier the last date was moved from July 31, 2019 to August 31, 2019.
Record ITR filing on a single day
“The Income Tax Department registers a quantum jump in the e-filing of ITRs with an all-time high of 49,29,121 ITRs filed in a single day on August 31, 2019,” the Income Tax Department said. This was in comparison with over 34.95 lakh ITRs filed on August 31, 2018, marking an increase of 41 per cent in the number of ITRs filed on a single day.
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Total ITRs filed in FY19
Apart from that, the total number of ITRs filed in FY 2019-20 up to August 31,2019 is 5,65,08,183 compared to 5,42,21,378 ITRs filed during the corresponding period in FY 2018-19, marking an increase of 4 per cent in the overall number of ITRs filed.
Peak ITR filing rate
Peak filing rate per second was at 196 ITRs and peak filing rate per minute was at 7,447 ITRs while peak filing rate per hour was at 3,87,571 ITRs. The Information Security team of Income Tax Department thwarted over 2,205 malicious attacks on the website aimed at disrupting services in peak period.
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Form 26AS views also go up
Data on TRACES portal reveals there were 42,75,913 Form 26AS views on August 31, 2019 as compared to 29,94,406 views on July 31,2018, marking an increase of almost 43% in peak views.
ITRs verified
Out of the 5.65 crore ITRs filed so far, 3.61 crore ITRs have been verified. A large number of taxpayers, about 2.86 crore (79 per cent) have opted for e-verification, mostly using Aadhaar OTP, the Income Tax Department said.
“Such huge online e-filing of ITRs on a single day was achieved by the smooth functioning of the e-filing portal, with the IT department actively interacting with taxpayers on social media to help them resolve their grievances and e-filing related queries,” it said.
Speedy redressal of taxpayers’ grievances
Taxpayers’ grievances on e-Nivaran, email and call centre were responded immediately with a turnaround time for Twitter being 4 hrs on queries related to e-filing. “The Income Tax Department not only acted in a taxpayer friendly manner but also as a facilitator providing information, assistance with the pre-filled forms and handholding e-filers, besides being proactively responsive on social media to help and guide taxpayers,” it said.
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