Income Tax: Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra has appealed to taxpayers to file their returns as soon as possible. He clarified that the Ministry of Finance is not considering extending the deadline beyond July 31. Malhotra said in an interview, “We hope that this year, more returns will be filed compared to the previous year. We expect it to be higher than last year.” Approximately 5.83 crore income tax returns were filed by the deadline of July 31 last year. This was the last day to file returns for Assessment Year 2022-23.
ITR Filing Speeding Up:
Malhotra further stated, “We want to thank the taxpayers who are filing their income tax returns because the pace of ITR filing is much faster compared to the previous year. We advise them not to wait until the last day and not to expect an extension of the deadline.” He added, “So, I urge them to file their tax returns as soon as possible since the deadline of July 31 is approaching rapidly.”
What else did the Revenue Secretary say?
Regarding the target of tax collection, Malhotra mentioned that it is in line with a growth rate of 10.5 percent. As for the growth of Goods and Services Tax (GST), it has been around 12 percent so far. However, due to the reduction in rates, the growth rate in excise duty has been less than 12 percent. He said that in reality, it is currently negative, but once the impact of rate reductions ends, they hope to achieve the target. As per the Union Budget 2023-24, the government expects to receive a gross tax revenue of Rs. 33.61 lakh crore in the current fiscal year.
