Penalty clause spurs filing of IT returns within deadline
New Delhi, Sep 1 : A total of Rs 5.42 crore income tax returns (ITRs) were filed till the end of extended August 31 deadline this year showing an improvement of around 71 per cent over returns filed during the same period last year, the government said on Saturday.
Almost 34.95 lakh returns were uploaded on August 31 itself, which was the last day of the extended due date of filing returns, it said.
The present surge, analysts said, could be because of the penalty clause introduced from assessment year (AY) 2018-19 under which filing returns after the August 31 deadline will attract a penalty of up to Rs 10,000.
However, the government said the increase was due to several factors and the penalty clause was only one of them.
The increase "reveals a marked improvement in the level of voluntary compliance of taxpayers which can be attributed to several factors, including the impact of demonetisation, enhanced persuasion and education of taxpayers as also the impending provision of late fee which would be effective on late filing of returns", an official statement said.
"This is indicative of an India moving steadily towards a more tax-compliant society and reflects the impact of continuous leveraging of technology to improve taxpayer service delivery," it added.
With the end of the deadline on Aug 31, people can still file their returns after paying a penalty. Return filing till December 31 will attract a penalty of Rs 5,000 which will double in cases of filing done till March 31, 2019. However, if the total income is up to Rs 5 lakh, then the maximum penalty is only Rs 1,000.
Till August 31 last year, the total number of returns filed were 3.17 crore. However, till March 31, 2018, the number rose to 6.85 crore.
The government said a "remarkable increase" was seen in the number of ITRs filed by salaried Individuals (ITR-1 and 2) as also those availing the benefit of the Presumptive Taxation Scheme (ITR-4), under which a small taxpayer can declare income at a prescribed rate and, in turn, is relieved from the job of maintaining of books of account.
"The total number of e-returns of salaried individual taxpayers filed till August increased to 3.37 crore from 2.19 crore returns filed during the corresponding period of 2017, registering an increase of 1.18 crore returns translating into a growth of almost 54 per cent," the statement said.
"A stupendous growth has been witnessed in the number of returns e-filed by persons availing the benefit of presumptive tax, with 1.17 crore returns having been filed compared to 14.93 lakh returns up to August 31, 2017 registering a massive increase of 681.69 per cent," it said.
The deadline for filing the returns was extended last month for salaried individuals and those with business or professional income not requiring an audit to August 31 from July 31.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
