Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

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New Delhi, 5^th September, 2023

Press Release

CBDT committed to speedy processing of Income Tax Returns

The Income Tax Department is committed to process the Income Tax Returns (ITRs) in a speedy and efficient manner. As on 05.09.2023, 6.98 crore ITRs for AY 2023-24 were filed, out of which 6.84 crore ITRs have been verified. More than 6 crore ITRs of AY 2023-24 have been processed out of the verified ITRs as on 05.09.2023, resulting in processing of over 88% of the verified ITRs. More than 2.45 crore refunds for AY 2023-24 have already been issued.

           The Department’s efforts to provide seamless and expeditious taxpayer services are being continuously strengthened. In line with the same, average processing time of ITRs (after verification) has been reduced to 10 days for Returns filed for AY 2023-24 compared to 82 days for AY 2019-20 and 16 days for AY 2022-23.  

It is pertinent to state that the Department is not able to process the following categories of ITRs for want of certain information/action on the part of taxpayers:

a) There are about 14 lakh ITRs for AY 2023-24 which have been filed but are yet to be verified by the taxpayers as on 04.09.2023. Failure to verify the Returns causes delays in processing as the Return can only be taken up for processing once the verification has been completed by the taxpayer. Taxpayers are urged to complete the verification process immediately.

b) There are about 12 lakh verified ITRs in which further information has been sought by the Department, for which requisite communication has been sent to the taxpayers through their registered e-filing accounts. Taxpayers are requested to respond to such communication expeditiously.

There are several cases in which the ITRs have been processed and refunds have also been determined but the Department is unable to issue them as taxpayers have not yet validated their bank account in which the refund is to be credited. Taxpayers are requested to validate their bank accounts through the e-filing portal.

         The Department remains committed to speedy processing and expeditious issue of refunds and solicits the cooperation of the taxpayers.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media and Technical Policy) &

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

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New Delhi, 26^th  August, 2023

PRESS RELEASE

CBDT launches the revamped National Website of the Income Tax Department www.incometaxindia.gov.in

          In order to enhance taxpayer experience and keep pace with new technology, the Income Tax Department has revamped its National website www.incometaxindia.gov.in  with a user-friendly interface, value-added features, and new modules. The newly revamped website was launched by Shri. Nitin Gupta, Chairman, CBDT, on 26^th August, 2023, at the ‘Chintan Shivir’, organised by Directorate of Income Tax (Systems) at Udaipur.         

          This website serves as a comprehensive repository of tax and other related information. It provides access to Direct Tax laws, several other Allied Acts, Rules, Income Tax Circulars and Notifications, all cross-referenced and hyperlinked. The site also offers a 'Taxpayer Services Module' featuring various tax tools to assist taxpayers in filing their income tax returns.

        The revamped website has been aesthetically redesigned with a mobile-responsive layout. The website also has a ‘Mega Menu’ for content, with new features, and functionalities. For the convenience of the visitors to the website, all these new additions are explained through a guided virtual tour and new button indicators.

         The new functionalities, allow users to compare different Acts, Sections, Rules, and Tax treaties. All relevant content on the site is now tagged with Income Tax sections for easy navigation. Further, dynamic due date alerts functionality provides reverse countdowns, tooltips, and links to relevant portals to help taxpayers to comply easily.

        The revamped website is another initiative in providing enhanced taxpayer services and will continue to educate taxpayers and facilitate tax compliance.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media and Technical Policy) &

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Ministry of Finance

CBDT notifies Rule for determination of value of perquisite in respect of residential accommodation provided by employer

Dated: 19 AUG 2023

The Finance Act, 2023 brought in an amendment for the purposes of calculation of “perquisite” with regard to the value of rent-free or concessional accommodation provided to an employee, by his employer. Accordingly, CBDT has modified Rule 3 of the Income-tax Rules, 1961 to provide for the same.

The categorisation and the limits of cities and population have now been based on the 2011 census as against the 2001 census earlier. The revised limits of population are 40 lakh in place of 25 lakh and 15 lakh in place of 10 lakh. The earlier perquisite rates of 15%, 10% and 7.5% of the salary have now been reduced to 10%, 7.5% and 5% of the salary respectively in the amended Rule. This is summarised as under:

 

Previous Categorisation and Rates		New Categorisation and Rates
Population	Perquisite Rate	Population	Perquisite Rate
More than 25 lakh	15%	More than 40 lakh	10%
Between 10 lakh and 25 lakh	10%	Between 15 lakh and 40 lakh	7.5%
Less than 10 lakh	7.5%	Less than 15 lakh	5%

 

The Rule has also been further rationalised so as to compute a fair tax implication of the same accommodation being occupied by an employee for more than one previous year.

Notification No. 65/2023 dated 18^th August, 2023 has been published and is available at https://egazette.nic.in.

 

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Law and Justice

Dated: 21 JUL 2023 

Use of Technology in Judicial Institutions

As part of the National eGovernance Plan, the eCourts Mission Mode Project is under implementation for ICT development of the Indian Judiciary based on the “National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology in the Indian Judiciary”. eCourts project is being implemented in association with e-Committee Supreme Court of India and Department of Justice. Phase I of the project was implemented between 2011-2015. Phase II of the project extended from 2015-23.The Government has taken the following e-initiatives to make justice accessible and available for all: -

1. Under the Wide Area Network (WAN) Project, connectivity has been provided to 99.4% (2976 out of earmarked 2994) of total Court Complexes across India with 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps bandwidth speed.
2. National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) is a database of orders, judgments, and cases, created as an online platform under the eCourts Project. It provides information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of all computerized district and subordinate courts of the country. Litigants can access case status information in respect of over 23.34 crore cases and more than 22.21 crore orders / judgments (as on 03.07.2023).
3. Case Information Software (CIS) based on customized Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) has been developed.  Currently CIS National Core Version 3.2 is being implemented in District Courts and the CIS National Core Version 1.0 is being implemented for the High Courts.
4. A new software patch and court user manual for COVID-19 management has also been developed.  This tool will help in smart scheduling of cases thereby enabling judicial officers to retain urgent cases and adjourn cases not urgent on cause list.   A user manual for this patch has also been issued for the ease of the stakeholders.
5. As part of eCourts project, 7 platforms have been created to provide real time information on case status, cause lists, judgements etc. to lawyers/Litigants through SMS Push and Pull (2,00,000 SMS sent daily), Email (2,50,000 sent daily), multilingual and tactile eCourts services Portal (35 lakh hits daily), JSC (Judicial Service centres) and Info Kiosks.  In addition, Electronic Case Management Tools (ECMT) have been created with Mobile App for lawyers (total 1.88 cr. downloads till 30^thJune 2023) and JustIS app for judges (19,164 downloads till 30^th June 2023).
6. India has emerged as a global leader in conducting court hearing through Video Conferencing. The District & Subordinate courts heard 1,98,67,081 cases while the High Courts heard 78,69,708cases (totalling 2.77 cr) till 30.06.2023 using video conferencing system. The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India held 4,82,941 hearings through video conferencing till 15.05.2023. VC facilities have also been enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails. Funds for 2506 VC cabins and VC equipment for 14,443 courtrooms have also been released. 1500 VC licenses have been procured to promote virtual hearings.
7. Live Streaming of court proceedings has been started in High Courts of Gujarat, Gauhati, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Patna, Madhya Pradesh & Hon’ble Supreme Court of India thus allowing media and other interested persons to join the proceedings.
8. 22 Virtual Courts in 18 States/UTs have been operationalized to handle traffic challan cases. More than 3.26 crore cases have been handled by 22 virtual courts and in more than 39 lakhs (39,16,405) cases online fine of more than Rs. 419.89 crores has been realized till 30.06.2023.
9. New e-filing system (version 3.0) has been rolled out for the electronic filing of legal papers with upgraded features.  Draft eFiling rules have been formulated and circulated to the High Courts for adoption. A total of 19 High Courts have adopted the model rules of e-Filing as on 30.06.2023.
10. e-Filing of cases requires the option for electronic payment of fees which includes court fees, fines and penalties which are directly payable to the Consolidated Fund. A total of 20 High Courts have implemented e-payments in their respective jurisdictions. The Court Fees Act has been amended in 22 High Courts till 30.06.2022.
11.  To bridge the digital divide, 819 eSewa Kendras have been rolled out with the intention of facilitating the lawyer or litigant who needs any kind of assistance ranging from information to facilitation and eFiling.It also assists the litigants in accessing online e-Courts services and acts as a saviour for those who cannot afford the technology or are located in far-flung areas. It also aids to addresses the challenges caused by illiteracy among citizens at large. It will provide benefits in saving time, avoidance of exertion, travelling long distances, and saving cost by offering facilities of e-filing of cases across the country, to conduct the hearing virtually, scanning, accessing e-Courts services etc.
12. In addition to eSewaKendras, as part of the DISHA (Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice)  scheme  the Government of India has launched Tele Law program since 2017, which provides an effective and reliable e-interface platform connecting the needy and disadvantaged sections seeking legal advice and consultation with panel lawyers via video conferencing, telephone and chat facilities available at the Common Service Centres (CSCs) situated in Gram Panchayat and through Tele-Law mobile App.
13. National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP) has been launched for technology enabled process serving and issuing of summons. It has currently been implemented in 28 States/ UTs.
14. A new “Judgment Search” portal has been started with features such as search by Bench, Case Type, Case Number, Year, Petitioner/ Respondent Name, Judge Name, Act, Section, Decision: From Date, To Date and Full Text Search. This facility is being provided free of cost to all.

The eCourts Phase II formally came to an end on 31^st March 2023.For further expanding the reach of justice through digital revolution, the Government of India, in the Union Budget 2023-2024, announced Rs. 7000 crores for Phase-III of e-Courts project. Based on Detailed Project Report approved by eCommittee, Supreme Court of India, the Expenditure Finance Committee in its meeting held on 23.02.2023 has recommended eCourts Phase III with a total outlay of Rs.7210 Crore. Further, the Empowered Technology Group chaired by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister in its meeting held on 21.06.2023 has also recommended the eCourts Phase III for approval.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Law and Justice, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

 

Ministry of Finance

IT Department Conducts Verification of Reporting Entities

Dated: 30^th JUN 2023

The Income-Tax Department has been focusing its efforts on promoting voluntary compliance. In this endeavour, information is received about financial transactions of taxpayers from Reporting Entities, such as Banks, Forex Dealers, Sub-Registrars, etc. The information furnished by the Reporting Entities is used for display to the taxpayer, through the e-filing account, in the form of the Annual Information Statement (AIS). This is an important step towards facilitating taxpayers for filing their Return of Income accurately.

While most Reporting Entities are voluntarily complying with the statutory requirements of filing correct and complete Statements of Specified Financial Transactions (SFTs), defaults have been noticed in some cases.

Recently, the Department carried out verification of a prominent Bank based in Tamil Nadu, to address Reporting Entity compliance issues.

During the course of verification, several discrepancies were found. It was seen that the bank had not filed SFTs in certain cases and in some others, had not filed complete/accurate particulars. SFTs were not filed in respect of Cash deposits of over Rs.2,700 crore involving more than 10,000 accounts; specified Credit card payments involving total transaction value of over Rs.110 crore;  Dividend distributed of more than Rs.200 crore and Shares issued of over Rs.600 crore.

Further, SFTs already filed by the Bank were found incomplete in several respects. The bank had failed to report major transactions which included Interest paid of more than Rs.500 crore; Time deposits; Cash deposits and withdrawals in current accounts, etc.

The verification also revealed defective filing of Form 61B for Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) about account holders “resident” in other countries.

In the recent past too, verification was conducted by the Department on 2 cooperative banks in Uttarakhand and transactions exceeding few thousand crore, not reported by the banks, were identified.

In order to explain the legal obligations and processes, as well as to address difficulties faced by the Reporting Entities, outreach programmes are being regularly organised by the Department across the country. This is another initiative of the Department to facilitate ease of compliance.

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PPG/KMN

(Release ID: 1936490)