I-T dept racing to aid refunds

You may not need to wait much longer for that income tax refund. The Income Tax department is working on a plan to expedite refund claims and make pending payments within the current fiscal year.

You may not need to wait much longer for that income tax refund.

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The Income Tax department is working on a plan to expedite refund claims and make pending payments within the current fiscal year.

This would be for the first time that I-T refunds are made within the fiscal year in which the claim is filed.

"It is a part of our process of expediting the tax refund process," a senior official at Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said. "Our plan is to complete refunds against the returns filed in the current fiscal."

The I-T department paid out refunds of Rs 53,688 crore during April to January in the current fiscal against Rs 38,721 crore a year ago — a growth of over 38%.

"The department aims to clear the backlog as well," the official said. "At present 90% of the processing of refunds has been completed this year."

The centralised processing centre (CPC) at Bangalore has completed processing of all e-filed tax returns for the assessment year 2010-11. The tax department has said all refund claims below Rs 10 lakh would be issued their I-T refunds by March 2011.

Two more CPCs are set to come up at Manesar and Pune in the next financial year, and a fourth one at Kolkata in 2012.