Over 30,000 I-T pleas for condoning ‘delayed returns’ pending
New Delhi, May 8, 2023
Income tax authorities across the country are sitting on over 30,000 returns involving condonation of delay, causing hardship to a score of filers.
Those who are affected by the indecision of tax officials include individuals with motor insurance awards and even those who have filed their returns to avail of loans. Several individuals such as those driving taxis or other gig economy workers are often unaware of filing returns on time despite the platforms making their payments after deducting tax.
The income tax law provides for condonation of delay under section 119(2). In January 2020, CBDT had issued instructions allowing commissioners to admit applications for delays up to 365 days in returns for financial year 2017-18 and decide the case on their merits. Last July, it allowed applications for delays up to three years for FY2017-18 and subsequent years, subject to authorisation by senior officials, such as chief commissioners or principal chief commissioners.
Several senior officials are, however, seen to be holding up a decision on the applications, by neither accepting nor rejecting them, resulting in a pile up of cases.
The issue was recently discussed in a meeting with the CBDT members and chairman, given that it has set alarm bells ringing in other wings of the government. But there appears to be little headway in the case, at least so far.
“You need to look at each case separately before deciding on it. A one size fits all approach cannot work,” argued a senior officer.
Another view within the government is to speed up disposals by bunching similar cases into the same bracket. Many within the government believe that holding up applications, some of which date back a few financial years, simply defeats the purpose of the provision that is there in the law, especially when CBDT itself had asked officials to use it for providing relief to several taxpayers.
An officer explained that there are multiple cases of individuals realising that they need to file their returns given that some income has accrued to them and have sought condonation of delay but their case has not been decided by the authorities.
[The Times of India]
