The Hindu : Business : IT returns deadline stays

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 18, 2006

Business

Business

IT returns deadline stays

Special Correspondent

Department to process all tax refund cases within four months

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday ruled out extension of the July 31 deadline for filing income-tax returns, while announcing the opening of special counters in major cities from July 28 to meet the last-minute rush.

Briefing newspersons here, the CBDT spokesman, A. K. Sinha, said that although there would be no extension of the last date, special arrangements were being made in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata to cope with the eleventh-hour rush of assessees filing IT returns.

In Delhi, for instance, special arrangements would be made for four days from July 28 to 31 for receiving the tax returns. As for other major cities apart from the five metros, it would be up to the chief commissioners to make the necessary arrangements for this purpose, Mr. Sinha said. For the convenience of the taxpayers in filing returns, the special counters, he said, would function through the weekend (July 29 and 30) as on normal working days despite being Saturday and Sunday. Mr. Sinha, however, appealed to the taxpayers to start filing returns from Tuesday itself to avoid the last-minute rush.

As for making spot refunds to senior citizens, Mr Sinha said the facility would be available only in those locations where computer linkage could be established. The IT Department, he said, had been directed to process all tax refund cases within four months of filing returns.

Asserting that at any cost, the assessees would receive refunds before March 31, 2007, he said: "There is no possibility of delay in refunds as it will be totally computer-generated.'' However, since the despatch process would still be a manual operation, he said there could be some delay in the refund orders reaching the doorstep of assessees.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section