Income Tax Refund Process Is Faster Now, Finds CII Survey

Measures introduced by the government to simplify and automate the taxation regime have raised the trust factor among taxpayers towards the Income Tax Department, according to a survey by CII.

About 87% of the individual respondents and 89% of firms said that the process of claiming income tax refund was convenient, the Confederation of Indian Industry survey revealed. Over 90% of the respondents, both individuals and enterprises, said that that ITR refund gets automatically generated after filing the ITR, it said.

The survey, presented to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, revealed that 83% of the surveyed individuals and 85% of firms shared an increased trust with the Income tax department.

"The extensive measures which have been introduced by the government in the recent years to streamline, simplify and automate the taxation regime have borne rich dividends as is evident from the upbeat survey results on assessing speed and efficiency of income tax refunds conducted by CII,” said R Dinesh, president of CII.

There has also been a greater reduction in waiting time to get an income tax refund in the last five years, the survey said.

The significant reduction in waiting time to get a refund for both individuals and firms is encouraging as it reflects the government's unrelenting efforts to make the process simple and efficient over the years, said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of CII.

The survey was conducted in October this year among 3,531 respondents, out of which 56.4% were individual respondents and 43.6% were firms.