The Income Tax department has informed taxpayers that its services on the e-filing portal will be temporarily unavailable from 2 pm on Saturday, February 3, 2024, to 6 am on Monday, February 5, 2024, due to scheduled maintenance activities.
The department has urged taxpayers to plan their activities accordingly during this brief period of unavailability.
A statement from the Income Tax department on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, reads, "Please note that due to a scheduled maintenance activity involving technical upgradation of the system, taxpayer services on the e-filing portal will be restricted. Kindly plan your activities accordingly."
During this downtime, taxpayers should refrain from attempting to access the portal or carry out any tax-related activities.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during the reading of the
Interim Budget statement on Thursday, emphasised the government's efforts to improve taxpayer services.
She highlighted the transformation of the age-old jurisdiction-based assessment system with the introduction of faceless assessment and appeal, aiming to bring greater efficiency, transparency, and accountability to the process.
Sitharaman further mentioned the positive impact of recent initiatives such as the introduction of the updated income tax returns, a new Form 26AS, and prefilling of tax returns.
These measures have significantly simplified the process of filing tax returns, leading to reduction in the average processing time from 93 days in the year 2013-14 to just 10 days in the current year.
The Finance Minister assured that these improvements contribute to faster processing of refunds, ultimately benefiting taxpayers.
