In a testament towards renewed efforts of the tax department leading to enhanced taxpayer relationship, CII in an Income Tax refund survey found that automation and simplification in the income tax refund process have raised the trust factor among the taxpayers.
According to the survey, 89% of the individuals and 88% of the firms surveyed have seen a greater reduction in waiting time for receiving income tax refunds. "87% of the individual respondents and 89% of firms revealed that the process of claiming income tax refund as convenient in a recent survey conducted by CII to assess speed and efficiency of income tax refunds," the survey highlighted.
The survey also saw the overwhelming majority of respondents (above 90%) including both individuals and firms/enterprises revealing that an ITR refund gets automatically generated after filing the ITR.
"The survey further revealed that 75.5% of the individuals and 22.4% of the firm-level respondents did not pay any excess TDS over and above their estimated tax liability. The respondents (individuals - 84% and firms - 77%) also revealed that the process of checking refund status was now smooth," the survey found.
According to CII, the continued efforts to make the process of getting income tax refunds simple and efficient, 89% and 88% of individuals and firms respectively were of the view that there has been a greater reduction in waiting time to get an income tax refund in the last five years, between 2018-2023.
Commenting on the survey results, CII President R Dinesh said, "The extensive measures which have been introduced by the government in the recent years to streamline, simplify and automate the taxation regime has borne rich dividends as is evident from the upbeat survey results on assessing speed and efficiency of income tax refunds conducted by CII."
“The significant reduction in waiting time to get an income tax refund over the last 5 years by both individuals and firms, as shown by the survey results is encouraging as it reflects the Government's unrelenting efforts to make the process of getting income tax refunds simple and efficient over the years," said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.
The individual respondents (53%) and firm-level respondents (45%) cited that it takes less than a month to receive an income tax refund. Reflecting the overall efficiency speed and efficiency of the income tax refunds, 83% of the surveyed individual respondents and 85% of the surveyed firm-level respondents shared an increased trust with the Income tax department, the survey said.
The survey was conducted in October 2023 among 3,531 respondents out of which 56.4% were individual respondents and 43.6% were firms or enterprise or organisations level respondents. The survey was conducted at the pan India level, wherein the maximum participation was steered from the major states.
The CII Income Tax Refund Survey report was presented to the union finance minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday (November 22).
First Published: Nov 22, 2023 7:10 PM IST
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