Reportedly the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on wednesday said that it has issued income tax refunds to over 10.2 lakh people totalling to around Rs 4,250 crore. Earlier on april 8, the government had announced that the pending income tax refunds up to Rs 5 lakh will be cleared with an immediate effect to help taxpayers battle the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the statement issued by the CBDT, these refunds are over and above the 2.50 crore refunds already issued in FY 19-20 till march 31, 2020 totalling to Rs 1.84 lakh crore.
The CBDT further said that about 1.75 lakh more refunds are in the process of issuance in this week. These refunds would get credited directly to the taxpayer bank account in 5-7 business days from issuance. However, in around 1.74 lakh cases, email responses are awaited from taxpayers regarding reconciliation with their outstanding tax demand for which a reminder email has been sent asking them to respond within seven days so that the refund can be processed accordingly.
Moreover the CBDT appealed that it is in the interest of taxpayers to provide a response to such emails at the earliest so that refunds could be processed and issued at the earliest. CBDT has requested taxpayers to check their email and login to their e-filing account to respond to the I-T Department immediately. The statement said "It may be noted that these reminder emails from I-T department are in fact for the benefit of taxpayers as it seeks them to confirm their outstanding demand, their bank accounts and reconciliation of defect/mismatch prior to issue of refund".
