Govt targets to add 1.3 crore income tax filers this fiscal

New Delhi: The government has set a target of adding 1.3 crore income tax filers in the current financial year against 1.1 crore new filers last year, Parliament was informed on Monday.

There were 8.44 crore taxpayers in Assessment Year 2018-19. This included persons who filed a return of income for Assessment Year 2018-19 as well as persons who did not file a return of income but in whose case tax has been deducted at source during Financial Year 2017-18.

"The Government has fixed a target of adding 1.3 crore new income tax return filers during the current financial year as against 1.1 crore new filer added during FY 2018-19," Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

For achieving this target, various measures are being taken including identification of potential non-filers through centralized Non-filer Monitoring System (NMS), formulation of region-specific strategies for identifying potential non-filers, issue of statutory notices to enforce compliance, simplification in income-tax returns and filing process to encourage voluntary filing, etc.

In a reply to a separate question, Thakur said 46,13,91,168 Permanent Account Numbers (PANs) have been allotted as on July 30, 2019.

Further, there are around 30,618 PAN-TIN (Tax Identification Number) facilitation centres all over India.