Income Tax Return Filing On 'Very Smoothly', No Extension, Says Finance Ministry
Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said that by 3 pm today, 5.62 crore returns have been filed.
![<div class="paragraphs"><p>Nirmala Sitharaman, finance minister at North block of Central Secretariat building. [Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg]</p></div>](https://media.assettype.com/bloombergquint%2F2021-12%2Ff7303c07-88e5-487c-8e9a-0b475d453e7b%2F357478411.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&w=200)
The income tax-return filing is on "smoothly" and the government has no proposal to extend the deadline, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said amid concerns about glitches faced by individual taxpayers and chartered accountants on the portal.
The last date for filing returns is Friday, Dec. 31.
By 3 p.m., 5.62 crore returns had been filed against 4.93 crore in the previous year, Bajaj said, speaking at a press conference held after the GST Council meeting. “Today (Friday), more than 20 lakh returns were filed. This year, 60 lakh more returns have been filed.”
He expects 20-25 lakh more returns to be filed by 12 midnight.
“If returns are being filed in such numbers, I see no reason for anybody to claim this (glitches)," he said. "I don’t know for what reason they are claiming this.”
The nation's new electronic tax filing portal, developed by Infosys Ltd., was launched in June. It came under scrutiny in September when it crashed, with taxpayers unable to file their returns.
Two weeks earlier, senior Finance Ministry officials led by Bajaj, met with Infosys’ executives, including Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Salil Parekh, to discuss preparedness of the e-filing website as due date approached.
On social media, people continue to complain about glitches.