The rate of personal income tax (PIT) growth is nearly two times as that of corporate income tax (CIT), data from Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) show. But nearly 35 lakh refund cases are held up on many grounds. The Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Nitin Gupta on Tuesday assured that a “speedy resolution” will be found.

As on October 9, gross direct tax collection reached over ₹11-lakh crore showing a growth of around 18 per cent. After deducting refund of around ₹1.50-lakh crore, net direct tax collection touched ₹9.57-lakh crore, nearly 22 per cent higher than last fiscal. During the said period, net CIT grew by over 12 per cent while in growth in net PIT, including Securities Transaction Tax, was around 32 per cent.

CBDT attributed this growth in tax collection to three factors: technology, disclosures in income tax returns and around 53 lakh new tax payers in FY23. The collections now have reached more than 50 per cent and expectation is that growth will accelerate further. “We will surpass the Budget Estimates,” Gupta said here on Tuesday. The government aims to collect over ₹18.23-lakh crore which needs a growth of 10.5 per cent over Revised Estimate of over ₹16.5-lakh crore of FY23.

Refunds

Asked about instances where refunds are stuck as taxpayers were getting old demands pertaining to the period around 2010-11, Gupta said the department had undergone a technology shift around 2011 – from paper-based registers to computers – and hence some of those old demands were showing up in the accounts of the assessees.

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“We have started a unique demand management facilitation system about a year back for all such cases where refunds are held up due to a variety of reasons. An email is triggered to the taxpayer saying they will get a call three days from the dispatch of the email from a particular number and following this conversation, the issues are being resolved,” he said.

“We have resolved 1.4 lakh such entries over the last year following this Mysuru-based call centre interaction and the taxpayer can either accept the demand or contest it,” CBDT Chief said.

In some cases, refunds are held up because the taxpayer has not validated their bank account, either the bank has merged or the assessee has changed cities and the IFSC has changed, he said. “We urge the taxpayers to get their bank accounts validated. We have about 35 lakh cases where such mismatch has been detected and we are in touch with such taxpayers through official communication channels and the call centre as well,” he said.

According to official data for assessment year 2023-24, a total of 7.27 crore ITRs were filed out of which 7.15 crore were verified by the taxpayers and the department has processed 6.80 crore ITRs out of these.

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