Only 6.74 lakh claims for refund of income-tax are pending with the I-T Department after it launched a special drive to clear the pendencies, Parliament was informed today.
Responding to a query in the Lok Sabha, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, said while the department does not maintain records on the quantum of income-tax refunds claimed, as of March 31, 2011, approximately 38.26 lakh returns claiming refund were pending for processing.
“A special drive was launched by the Income-Tax Department to dispose of all the pending refund cases during the first half of the calendar year 2011. As a result, the pendency of returns claiming refund was only 6.74 lakh as on March 31, 2011, which includes such returns filed during the current financial year,” he said.
Mr Pranab Mukherjee said that the E-Refund Scheme, which was initially launched in 2007 on a pilot basis, was three years later rolled out across the country.
“In the scheme, refunds generated on processing of income-tax returns by the assessing officers/CPC Bengaluru are transmitted in a digitised form to the refund banker, currently State Bank of India, Mumbai, on the next day of processing for further distribution to taxpayers,” he said.