Lok Sabha Question No. 3092 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-20
Subject: Streamlining of Income Tax e-Filing Portal
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: Manne Srinivas Reddy, Raghu Ramakrishna Raju Kanumuru, Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3092

TO BE ANSWERED ON MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2023/ 29 PHALGUNA, 1944 (SAKA)

## STREAMLINING OF INCOME TAX e-FILING PORTAL

3092. SHRI MANNE SRINIVAS REDDY: SHRI KANUMURU RAGHU RAMA KRISHNA RAJU: SHRI KOMATI REDDY VENKAT REDDY:

Will the Minister of Finance be pleased to state:

(a)  whether  the  Government  aims  to  maintain  continuity  and  stability  of  taxation,  further simplify  and  rationalise  various  provisions  to  reduce  the  compliance  burden,  promote  the entrepreneurial spirit and provide tax relief to citizens and if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government in this regard;

(b) the details of the maximum, minimum and average amount of income tax returns filed and processed by the Income Tax e-filing portal within span of 24 hours;

(c)  whether  the  Government  proposes  to  take  any  action  to  further  improve  the  tax  payer portal and to roll out a next-generation common IT return form for the convenience of the tax payer and if so, the details thereof; and

(d)  whether  the  Government  proposes  to  strengthen  the  grievance  redressal  mechanism  to address various pending issues of tax payers and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI PANKAJ CHAUDHARY)

(a) The Government has taken a number of measures in recent years to maintain continuity and  stability  of  taxation,  further  simplify  and  rationalise  various  provisions  to  reduce  the compliance burden, promote the entrepreneurial spirit and provide tax relief to citizens. The details of the some such measures are as per Annexure.

(b) The details of the maximum, minimum and average amount of income tax returns filed and processed by the Income Tax e-filing portal within a span of 24 hours for A.Y. 2022-23 is as under:

- Lowest number of ITR filing in a day : 01(on 10 th April 2022 - i.e. on the day ITR 1 & 4 deployed)
- Highest number of ITR filing in a day : 72,42,156 (on 31 st July 2022, i.e., the due date for filing the returns u/s 139(1))
- Average number of ITR filing in a day : 2,82,559 (Total returns filed from 10 th April to 2022 to 31 st December 2022 : 7,51,60,817. No of days : 266. 7,51,60,817/266=2,82,559)

Moreover, for A.Y. 2022-23, 3,02,40,121 ITRs (i.e. 42.92% of total returns) were processed within a span of 24 hours of furnishing of ITR.

(c) It is a continuous and ongoing endeavour to improve the tax payer portal (e-filing portal). Some of the steps taken in this regard include roll out of online tax payment system (TIN 2.0) on which till now 19 banks have onboarded. Further this portal made available new payment modes to taxpayers for payment of taxes. This has led to faster credit of taxes paid. Further, educational  videos  and  FAQs  are  continuously  being  uploaded  on  the  portal  to  create awareness among taxpayers on relevant topics for easier tax compliance. Recently, facility for co-browsing  has  been  enabled  on  the  portal  for  providing  help  to  the  taxpayers  by  the helpdesk team in respect of issues related to portal.

Further,  the  common  Income  Tax  Return  ('CTR')  has  been  proposed  as  a  common  return form for all persons except Trusts. The proposed Return aims to bring ease of filing returns and  reduce  the  time  for  filing  the  ITR  by  individuals  and  non-business-type  taxpayers considerably.  The taxpayers will not be required to see the schedules that do not apply to them. Schedules have been designed smartly in a user-friendly manner  with better arrangement, logical flow, and with increased scope of pre-filling. It will also facilitate the proper reconciliation of third-party data available with the Income-tax Department vis a vis the data to be reported in the ITR to reduce the compliance burden on the taxpayers. Draft of the CTR was uploaded in public domain inviting comments from all stakeholders.

(d) Income Tax department has the following grievance redressal mechanisms:

- e-Nivaran module on e-filing portal
- High Pitched Assessment committees in each Pr. CCIT charge
- Tax Payer Charter Cells (TPCC) in each Pr. CCIT charge.
- CPGRAM on the DARPG portal.

Strengthening the grievance redressal mechanism is an ongoing and continuous process. With enhanced  monitoring  and  reducing  the  response  time  to  the  various  grievances  filed  by taxpayer,  an  impetus  has  been  given  in  the  various  grievance  redressal  mechanisms.  The increased digitalisation of procedures under the Act has also contributed to the improvement in the disposal of taxpayer grievances.

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## DIRECT TAX MEASURES

## I. Reduction in tax rates & Simplification of direct tax laws

Corporate Tax It has been the stated policy of the Government to simplify the Income-tax Act, 1961 by removing exemptions and incentives while at the same time reducing the rates of  taxes.  Starting  from  the  Finance  Act,  2016,  the  corporate  tax  rates  have  been  gradually reduced  while  phasing  out  the  exemptions  and  incentives  available  to  the  corporates.  In furtherance  of  this  policy,  through  Taxation  Laws  (Amendment)  Act,  2019,  an  option  has been  provided  to  the  corporates  to  pay  tax  at  concessional  rate  of  22%  (plus  applicable surcharge and cess) if they do not avail any exemption or incentive. Further, new domestic manufacturing companies (set up on or after 1 st October, 2019 and starting manufacture on or before 31 st March, 2024) has been provided an option for paying tax at 15% (plus applicable surcharge  and  cess)  without  claiming  specified  exemption  and  incentive.  Further,  such companies are not required to pay MAT as well.

Personal Income TaxFurther, in order to reform personal income tax, Finance Act, 2020 has provided an option to individual taxpayers for paying income-tax at lower slab rates if they do not avail specified exemption and incentive. The personal income tax new regime is proposed  to  be  further  liberalised  by  Finance  Bill,  2023  by  providing  substantial  relief  to taxpayers under this regime.

## II. Ease of Compliance for Taxpayers

Faceless  Schemes -  The  procedures  for  assessment,  appeal  and  levy  of  penalty  under  the Income-tax  Act  have  been  made  faceless  by  eliminating  the  human  interface  between  the Assessing Officer and the assessee, optimising use of resources through functional specialization and streamlining the procedures to enable efficient implementation.

Pre-filling of Income-tax ReturnsIn order to make tax compliance more convenient, prefilled Income tax Returns (ITR) have been provided to individual taxpayers.  The ITR form now  contains  pre-filled  details  of  certain  incomes  such  as  salary  income.  The  scope  of information for pre-filing is being further expanded by including information such as house property income, capital gains from securities, bank interest, dividends, etc.

Taxpayers' Charter: The Hon'ble Prime Minister has also launched a 'Taxpayer's Charter'. The Charter reflects certain principal commitments of the Income Tax Department towards the taxpayer. The taxpayer's charter has been adopted by the CBDT as per the provisions of section 119A. With its adoption, India joins other major economies in the world like USA, UK, Canada and Australia which too have adopted and published Charter as a gesture of their commitment towards their taxpayers. The Charter will go a long way in strengthening the trust  between  the  taxpayer  and  the  tax  administration.  It  will  also  help  in  enhancing  the efficiency of the delivery system of the Income Tax Department.

## ANNEXURE

Updated return A new provision has been introduced in the Act facilitating the taxpayer to be able to update his return anytime within two years from the end of the relevant assessment year. A taxpayer can file an updated return by  voluntarily admitting omissions or mistakes and paying an  additional  tax  as  applicable.  A  formal  mechanism  of  first  passively  sharing information through Assessee Information System (AIS) and then actively sharing through eVerification scheme has been recently enabled. Non-intrusive voluntary compliance through this two-pronged approach is devised to enable access to a taxpayer of information available with  the  Department  and  to  nudge  him  to  correct  omissions/errors/oversights)  by  allowing updating of this return of income.

## III. Reduction in Litigation

Setting up of Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC)For reducing litigation and to give an impetus to the dispute resolution for small taxpayers, a Dispute Resolution Committee is to be constituted.  A taxpayer having taxable income up to Rs. 50 lakh and disputed income up to  Rs.  10  lakh  shall  be  eligible  to  approach  the  Committee.  For  ensuring  efficiency, transparency  and  accountability,  the  procedure  of  the  Committee  will  be  conducted  in  a faceless manner.

Vivad se VishwasSince a large number of disputes related to direct taxes were pending at various  levels  of  adjudication  from  Commissioner  (Appeals)  level  to  Supreme  Court,  an urgent need was felt to provide for resolution of pending tax disputes which will not only benefit the Government by generating timely revenue but also the taxpayers as it will bring to close  mounting  litigation  costs  and  efforts  can  be  better  utilized  for  expanding  business activities. Hence, Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 was enacted on 17 th March, 2020 under which the declaration for settling disputes have been filed. The scheme has been very successful.

Repetitive  appeals :  Taking  forward  the  policy  of  litigation  management,  a  new  section 158AB is inserted into the Income-tax Act. If a question of law in the case of an assessee is identical to a question of law pending in appeal before the jurisdictional High Court or the Supreme  Court  in  any  case,  the  filing  of  further  appeal  to  the  Appellate  Tribunal  or  the jurisdictional High Court in the case of the assessee shall be deferred till such question of law is decided by the relevant Court subject to certain conditions.

## IV. Benefits to senior citizen taxpayers

In order to ease compliance burden on senior citizen pensioners who are of 75 years of age or above having pension and interest income have been exempted from the requirement of filing of income tax if the full amount of tax payable has been deducted by the paying bank.

## INDIRECT TAXES

In this regards steps taken in relation to import duty are listed as follows -

- a)      As  announced  in  Budget  Speech  2023-24,  the  number  of  basic  customs  duty  rate slabs on goods, other than textiles and agriculture, are being reduced from 21 to 13.
- b)      In  the  last  three  years,  through  extensive  consultation  more  than  350  exemption entries are being gradually phased out.
- c)      Also, as a simplification measure, several concessional rates are incorporated in the Customs  Tariff  Schedule  itself  instead  of  prescribing  them  through  various  exemption notifications.

A  simplified  tax  structure  with  fewer  tax  rates  helps  in  reducing  compliance  burden, improving tax administration and a step forward in achieving our objective of 'Make in India' and 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'.