Nearly 90% income tax payers find refunds easier, says CII survey

The CII survey on income taxes was conducted in October 2023

A survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) revealed that 89 percent of individuals and 88 percent of firms were of the view that there has been a significant reduction in the waiting time to get an income tax refund in the last five years, between 2018-2023.

The survey was conducted in October 2023 among 3531 respondents out of which 56.4 percent were individual respondents and 43.6 percent were firms/enterprise/organisation-level respondents. The survey was conducted at the pan-India level where maximum participation came from the major states.

“The significant reduction in waiting time to get an income tax refund over the last five years by both individuals and firms, as shown by the survey results is encouraging as it reflects the Government's unrelenting efforts to make the process of getting income tax refunds simple and efficient over the years,” said  Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.

Among the respondents, 53 percent of individuals and 45 percent belonging to firms cited that it took less than a month to receive income tax refunds. Reflecting the overall efficiency speed and efficiency of the income tax refunds, 83 percent of the surveyed individual respondents and 85 percent of the surveyed firm-level respondents shared an increased trust with the income tax department, CII said in a statement on November 22.

The survey further revealed that 87 percent of individual respondents and 89 percent of firms said that claiming income tax refund (ITR) has become convenient as an overwhelming majority of respondents (above 90 percent) including both individuals and firms/enterprises said that ITR refund gets automatically generated after filing the returns.

The Finance Ministry on November 10 said that direct tax refunds worth Rs 1.77 lakh crore have been issued during April 1, 2023, to November 9, 2023.

On the issue of paying tax deducted at source (TDS), 75.5 percent of individuals and 22.4 percent of the firm-level respondents said that they did not pay any excess TDS over and above their estimated tax liability.

However, among individuals, 8 percent of the respondents said that they ended up paying TDS in addition to their tax liabilities to the tune of 10-20 percent.

Among firms that are required to pay TDS, 22.4 percent of them did not pay more than their estimated tax liability, 19.6 percent paid excess TDS in the range of 0-10 percent, followed by 25.7 percent in the range of 10-20 percent, and 19 percent who paid in the excess of 20-30 percent, according to the survey.