ITR filing: Govt not planning extension of July 31 deadline

NEW DELHI: Income tax payers should file their return as soon as possible, as the government is not planning to extend the July 31 deadline.

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra told PTI in an interview that he expects the filing to be higher than last year and hopes that it will exceed the 5.83 crore returns filed by July 31 last year, which was the last day for filing returns for assessment year 2022-23.

He thanked the income tax return filers for filing at a faster pace than last year and advised them not to wait till the last moment or hope for any extensions.

“I would urge them to file their tax return as soon as possible because the deadline of July 31 is approaching fast," Malhotra said.

With regard to the tax mobilisation target, Malhotra said, it is more or less in line with the target growth rate, which is 10.5 per cent.

The growth rate as far as Goods and Services Tax (GST) is concerned, it is 12 per cent so far, he said. However, the growth rate is lower than 12 per cent on the excise duties front due to rate reduction.

"It is rather negative as of now.Hopefully going forward, once the impact of the decrease in the tax rates is over, we will see some increase in collection of excise duties. So, overall we feel it's still early days...we feel that we should be able to achieve the target," Malhotra said.