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Aug 13, 2024
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Taxpayers getting faster refunds this year? FM says ITR processing time reduced to 10 days from 93 days
Last week in Parliament, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the average time taken to process income tax returns (ITR) has decreased from 93 days in 2013 to 10 days. While this is a commendable achievement for the government, does this mean you can expect faster tax refunds in the future? Read on to find out.
Not all ITRs are going to be processed in 10 days
The FM mentioned that the 'average' processing time has been reduced to 10 days now. This does not mean that all types of ITRs will get processed in 10 days. The higher the complications of an ITR form, the higher the time it takes to process it. ITR-3 is more complex than ITR-2, and ITR-2 is more complex than ITR-1.
"Normally refund claims of ITR-1 gets prioritised followed by ITR-2 and ITR-3 in view of the simple and complex structure of the income returned. Refund claims in ITR-1 without any defect/adjustments generally are received by the taxpayers within a few days from the date of filing returns. However, if returns are filed very close to the last date of filing of ITR there could be delay in processing of returns. Refund claims in ITR-2 and ITR-3 without any defect/adjustments can be expected to be received in a couple of months normally," says Ramakrishnan Srinivasan, former chief commissioner of Income tax.
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