I-T refunds Rs 1,793crore to small tax payers

The income-tax department has refunded Rs 1,793 crore to small tax payers as part of the sp-ecial drive between December 1 and January 10, 2016. In an initiative to reduce tax-payer grievances and enhance the tax-payer satisfaction, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had issued instructions to the Central Processing Centre (CPC), Bengaluru, and the field officers in December, 2015, to issue refunds of amounts less than Rs 50,000 expeditiously.

“As a result of the special drive to issue smaller refunds, 18,28,627 ref-unds below Rs 50,000, inv-olving a sum of Rs 1,793 crore has been issued between December 1, 2015 and January 10, 2016. These refunds rel-ate to assessment years 2013-14 to 2015-16,” said CBDT.

Moreover, it has now directed income-tax off-icials to issue refunds in cases where outstanding arrears are up to Rs 5,000 without any adjustment.

“In order to further expedite the process of issue of small refunds, CBDT has also directed CPC-Bengaluru and the field units that refunds up to Rs 5,000, and refunds in cases where outstanding arrears are up to Rs 5,000, may be issued without any adjustment of outstanding arrears,” it said.

The steps taken by CBDT include issue of a circular revising the monetary limits for filing of appeals by the department with the objective of reducing litigation as a part of its initiatives to reduce grievances of the tax-payers.