Income tax refund to be sent in 7-10 days

The income tax (I-T) department is now in a position to process and send tax refund in a mere 7-10 days with its latest technology upgrade of electronic and Aadhaar-based income tax return (ITR) verification having been successfully completed.

The department's new initiative to verify an ITR by Aadhaar or other bank database has received positive response from filers as a result of which some refunds to eligible taxpayers have already been sent within 15 days for the assessment year 2015-16. Earlier, taxpayers had to wait for months, or in some cases, few years to get refund. A senior official confirmed that the new electronic verification e-filing system has proved to be a success and the department is working to ensure their refunds are sent in a week's time or a maximum of ten days.

According to the latest figures, the department has received 2.06 crore returns on its e-filing portal as on September 7 (last date for ITR filing), which is an increase of 26.12 per cent over the last year, when 1.63 crore returns were filed online.

The department's central processing centre (CPC) as on September 7 processed 45.18 lakh returns and issued refund to 22.14 lakh taxpayers relating to assessment year 2015-16, it added. During this period, the department electronically verified more than 32.95 lakh e-returns.

With these new technological advancements, the I-T department is aiming to completely remove human interface in these taxpayers services, which directly leads to faster processing of ITRs and spares tax payers from being harassed by junior staff, the official added.

The new e-filing system, which was put in place in August, allows online verification of an ITR by using either the Aadhaar number, Internet banking, ATM or email.