The Income Tax Department issued refunds worth Rs 62,361 crore since April 8, which is at least 4% lower than the year-ago period.
Of the total amount released until June 30, Rs 38,908 crore is the corporate tax refund to 136,744 taxpayers and Rs 23,453 crore is income tax refund to 1,907,853 taxpayers, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said in a statement.
The department had refunded Rs 64,700 crore between April 1 and June 18 last year, according to a response shared by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha on June 24, 2019.
Shailesh Kumar, partner at Nangia & Co LLP, said besides liquidity crisis being faced by businesses due to Covid-19 pandemic and expectation of declining profits for companies in the current fiscal, tax refunds issued might have contributed to a reduction in net direct tax collections.
India's direct tax collections dropped by over a third between April 1 and June 15—the last date for paying the first instalment of advance tax—to Rs 92,681 crore.
The CBDT also urged taxpayers to provide immediate response to emails of Income Tax Department so that refunds could be processed and issued right away. Such emails have been sent to taxpayers to confirm their outstanding demand, bank account number, and reconciliation of mismatch prior to issue of refund, the statement said.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
