The Income tax department has already processed and issued refunds for 2.45 crore returns for assessment year 2023-24. A total of 6.98 crore ITRs were filed, with 6.84 crore of them already verified so far. More than 6 crore of the total ITRs have been successfully processed, accounting for more than 88 per cent of the verified.

According to an official statement, the Income Tax Department is committed to process the ITRs in a speedy and efficient manner.

The Department’s efforts to provide seamless and expeditious taxpayer services are being continuously strengthened. In line with the same, average processing time of ITRs (after verification) has been reduced to 10 days for returns filed for AY 2023-24 compared to 82 days for AY 2019-20 and 16 days for AY 2022-23.

There are about 12 lakh verified ITRs in which further information has been sought by the Department, for which requisite communication has been sent to the taxpayers through their registered e-filing accounts. Taxpayers are requested to respond to such communication expeditiously. That apart, there are another 14 lakh ITRs for AY 2023-24 which have been filed but are yet to be verified by the taxpayers. Failure to verify the returns causes delays in processing as the return can only be taken up for processing once the verification has been completed by the taxpayer. The tax department urged the taxpayers to complete the verification process immediately.