CBDT Chairman Nitin Gupta said the list included both corporate and individual tax returns. He said these were being flagged by the system because the high value transactions selected by the Annual Information System (AIS) did not match the reports filed.
“About 68,000 cases relating to the 2019-2020 financial year were submitted for electronic verification based on the risk management parameters set by the department, on a pilot basis,” Gupta said.
He added that of all the cases selected, in 35,000 cases, or 56% of the total cases, taxpayers have already responded satisfactorily to the notice or filed updated tax returns.
In the remaining 33,000 cases, no response was received.
The department will only take action if the taxpayer does not file an updated return or send a response by March 31, 2023.
Taxpayers have until March 31 to file updated returns for income earned in the 2019-20 fiscal year.
So far, the department has received about 1.5 million updated declarations and a tax worth ₹1,250 crore has been collected.
The CBDT has operationalized the electronic verification process which allows taxpayers to rectify and correct any discrepancies in their filed tax returns and information entered by the AIS, giving them the opportunity to respond to the department.
Taxpayers will have 15 days to respond to the petition and the entire process will be closed by 90 days, Gupta added.
Taxpayers can respond to the tax department with an explanation for the mismatch. They also have the option of filing an updated return.
“This is a tax-friendly initiative. Once an assessee files an updated ITR, there is less chance that their case will be taken up again for review or reassessment,” Gupta said, adding that this decision would reduce the number of tax disputes. and improve tax compliance.
Gupta added that the department will handle more e-verification cases in the next fiscal year because it already has a large database of filers.
