CBDT Rubbishes Reports Of Dip In Income Tax Filers; Clarifies That They Increased By 19 Per Cent In FY19

Repudiating some news reports that claimed that the number of income tax filers had fallen by as much as 6.6 lakh for the first time in history in 2018-19 (FY19), Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT) has stated that the actual figures have risen by 18.64 per cent, reports Financial Express.

“There have been some incorrect reports in media pertaining to reduction in numbers of Income Tax Returns (ITR) e-filed during Financial Year (FY) 2018-19 as compared to FY 2017-18. This is factually untrue, because the figures for FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19 are not directly comparable,” CBDT said in an official statement.

In comparison with the number of returns filed for the fiscal year 2017-18, the number of e-filers increased by 18.64 per cent, from 5.47 crore returns to 6.49 crore returns in FY 2018-19.

This implies the figure rose by over a crore, and that substantially larger number of taxpayers filed their income tax returns electronically in the just culminated financial year.

Also, while FY18 saw 1.27 crore returns filed for previous assessment years, in FY19 the total number of electronically-filed income returns for previous assessment years was only 14 lakh. This marks a significant rise in tax compliance.