A significant majority of individuals and 45% of businesses experienced a prompt issuance of income tax refunds, as revealed by a CII survey. This swift refund process emerged as a pivotal factor for over 80% of the respondents, signifying an elevated level of trust in the tax department.
The government’s focused efforts on accelerating return processing and refund disbursement have garnered positive feedback, contrasting with the delays of up to a year in the pre-automation era.
Among the surveyed group of over 3,500 individuals and firms, approximately 88% noted that the refund process had become faster over the past five years. Moreover, 65-70% of respondents believed that the waiting time had decreased compared to just a year ago. Impressively, over 62% of those surveyed found the refund process to be “very convenient,” as per the survey findings, reported TOI.
Delving into the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) system, three-fourths of individuals reported no excess deduction. However, the business sector indicated room for improvement, with only 22% asserting they did not incur additional TDS. Notably, 26% of businesses acknowledged paying 10-20% beyond their liability in TDS.
R. Dinesh, the leader of the industry lobby, remarked on the survey results, stated the extensive measures introduced by the government in recent years to streamline, simplify, and automate the taxation regime have yielded significant benefits, as evidenced by the positive survey outcomes assessing the speed and efficiency of income tax refunds conducted by CII.
However, recently, the CBDT Chairperson Nitin Gupta disclosed that the Income-Tax Department is presently facing delays in around 35 lakh refund cases due to inconsistencies in bank account information. He affirmed that the department is proactively engaging with these taxpayers through a specialised call centre to accelerate the resolution of these matters and ensure prompt refunds to the appropriate bank accounts.
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