ITR processing time reduced as taxpayers get Income Tax Refund in 12 hours

Income Tax Refund processing time has become so fast that you cannot imagine as one of the taxpayers, who happened to be a journalist, claimed that he received his tax refund within 12 hours.

The scribe, who is identified as Nirnay Kapoor, took to his Twitter handle and shared two screenshots to prove how he got his tax refund within 12 hours.

Kapoor said that had filed his return in the morning on July 27 and shockingly received the message of refund deposit after 12 hours or in the the evening of the same day.

पिछले 2 दशकों से भी ज्यादा से #IncomeTaxReturn फ़ाइल कर रहा हूँ… इस दौरान कई बार #REFUND भी क्लेम किये.. पर ऐसा कभी अनुभव नहीं किया जो आज किया..

आज सुबह ही अपना एसेसमेंट इयार 23-24 का रिटर्न फाइल किया और शाम होते होते मेरे बैंक अकाउंट में #REFUND भी जमा हो गया..

क्या आप… pic.twitter.com/Mw41HkG043

— Nirnay Kapoor (@nirnaykapoor) July 27, 2023

“The tax-filing reforms have resulted in the speedy filing and processing of income tax returns. There has been a 100% increase in the total percentage of ITRs processed within one day of their filing compared to the previous year,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this month.

Apart from doing the speedy ITR processing, the Income Tax Department also pays interest for the early ITR filing. The Income Tax Department gives an interest of 0.5% per month on the refund when ITR is filed by a taxpayer before the due date. The Department calculates the interest from April 1 till the date of refund.

It is to be noted there that the taxpayers, whose accounts don’t need to be audited, have to file ITR by on or before the deadline i.e July 31. While over 5 crore returns have already been filed by taxpayers till July 27, the Income Tax Department has already processed over 2.69 crore verified ITRs.