The wait for income tax (I-T) refunds may just get longer as issuing of refunds by the department has slowed down once again this fiscal. Figures available with FE show the amount of refunds till July 31 has dropped 17.2% to Rs 11,839.6 crore.
Tax officials cited various technical problems as the reason for slower processing and issuing of refund claims. ?There are some technical problems that are making downloading of e-TDS forms difficult,? an I-T official said.
Another reason for the delay is a mismatch in the TDS (tax deducted at source) software and the regular tax refund system. There is difficulty in matching the data in the two systems, he added.
Lesser refund claims are also being attributed as one of the reasons for delay by the I-T department.
The department, however, is confident that these technical problems will be ironed out soon. It is also planning to extend the refund banker scheme throughout the country by June 2008, which will ensure faster and more transparent refunds.
The delay in processing and issuing refunds has been one of the areas where the department has received flak continuously, including in a report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance last year.
The income tax department seemed to have been slowly clearing up its act when it issued refunds amounting to over Rs 39,000 crore last fiscal. This was an increase of nearly Rs 10,000 crore over the figures of 2005-06.