Record 6.77 crore ITRs filed for FY23 till July 31: Income Tax Dept

Record 6.77 crore ITRs were filed for AY 2023-24 till July 31, said Income Tax Department on Tuesday while appreciating "the taxpayers and tax professionals for making compliances in time". 

According to a press release by the Ministry of Finance, the total number of ITRs for AY 2023-24 filed till July 31, 2023 are more than 6.77 crore, which is 16.1 per cent more than the total ITRs for AY 2022-23 (5.83 crore) filed till July 31, 2022. 

The filing of ITRs peaked on July 31, 2023 (due date for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases) with over 64.33 lakh ITRs being filed on a single day. The e-filing portal also observed its highest per hour rate of 4,96,559 of ITR filing between 5 PM to 6 PM on July 31, 2023, with highest per second rate of ITR filing of 486 (31-Jul-2023: 16:35:06) and highest per minute rate of ITR filing of 8,622 (31-Jul-2023: 17:54). 

The Department also  received 53.67 lakh ITRs till July 31, 2023 from first time filers, a fair indication of widening of tax base. 

"Campaigns on social media along with targeted e-mail and SMS campaigns were launched to encourage the taxpayers to file their ITRs early. Such concerted efforts led to fruitful results with taxpayers filing their ITRs for AY 2023-24 relatively earlier compared to the corresponding period of the preceding year," said Ministry of Finance.

Out of the 6.77 crore ITRs filed for AY 2023-24, 49.18 per cent of ITRs are ITR-1 (3.33 crore), 11.97 per cent are ITR-2 (81.12 lakh), 11.13 per cent are ITR-3 (75.40 lakh), 26.77 per cent are ITR-4 (1.81 crore) and 0.94 per cent are ITR-5 to 7 (6.40 lakh). Over 46 per cent of these ITRs have been filed using the online ITR utility available on the e-filing portal and the balance have been filed using offline ITR utilities. 

During the peak filing period, e-filing portal successfully handled huge traffic providing a seamless experience to taxpayers for filing of ITRs. During the period from July 1, 2023 to July 31, 2023, there were more than 32 crore successful logins on the e-filing portal. On July 31, 2023 itself, successful logins stood at 2.74 crore.

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. "It is encouraging to note that 5.63 crore returns have been e-verified, out of which more than 5.27 crore are through Aadhaar based OTP (94 per cent). Of the e-verified ITRs, more than 3.44 crore ITRs for AY 2023-24 have been processed (61 per cent) by July 31, 2023," said the ministry.

Further, a new e-pay tax payment platform TIN 2.0 was made available on the e-filing portal, replacing the earlier Protean (NSDL) based OLTAS payment system. This enabled provision of more user-friendly options for e-payment of taxes and making available more number of options for mode of payments such as Internet Banking, NEFT/RTGS, OTC, Debit Card, payment gateway and UPI. TIN 2.0 platform has enabled real time credit of taxes to taxpayers which made ITR filing easier and faster. Over 1.26 crore challans have been received through TIN 2.0 payment system in the month of July, 2023 itself, while total challans filed through TIN 2.0 since 1st April, 2023 stands at 3.56 crore. 

"The e-filing Helpdesk team has handled approximately 5 lakh queries from taxpayers in the month of July, 2023 supporting the taxpayers proactively during the peak filing period. The support from the helpdesk was provided to taxpayers through inbound calls, outbound calls, live chats, webex and co-browsing sessions. Helpdesk team also supported resolution of queries received on the Twitter handle of the Department through Online Response Management (ORM),  by proactively reaching out to the taxpayers/ stakeholders and assisting them for different issues on near real-time basis," the ministry added.

The Department has requested all taxpayers to verify their ITRs within 30 days of filing. The Department also urges taxpayers, who for any reason, missed the due date, to complete their filing immediately.

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