Having already made refunds to 8.23 lakh assessees in the first half of this month, the Income Tax Department on Monday said it would settle all pending claims by the end of April.

About 85 lakh assessees received refunds of Rs.78,000 crore in the year 2010-11.

In the first half of April, the IT Department refunded Rs.6,183 crore to 8,23,101 assessees, Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Sudhir Chandra told reporters here.

Mr. Chandra said all the remaining refunds would be settled this month. We are trying to issue all the refunds in April.

Refunds of about Rs.4,000 crore would be made to 7,91,312 tax assesses by April 20. The refunds made in 2010-11 were about 70 per cent higher than the Rs.50,000 crore in the previous year.

Mr. Chandra further said that the IT Department would settle refunds within a month to those who filed returns electronically.

Despite huge refunds having been made, the direct tax collection would be in the range of Rs.4.5 lakh crore, much above the revised estimates of Rs.4.46 lakh crore, said Mr. Chandra.

No need to file returns

Assessees with income up to Rs.5 lakh will be exempted from filing returns. The provision [regarding not filing of returns] will be notified in the first week of June, Mr. Chandra said.

The new rule would will apply from the current assessment year, 2011-12, for the income earned in the year 2010-11.

However, people in this category (income up to Rs 5 lakh) would have to file returns if they sought refund, Mr. Chandra said.

The Revenue Department notified simpler income tax return forms Sahaj' and Sugam'. These were aimed at reducing the compliance burden on salaried persons and small businessmen.

Mr. Chandra said: [These] are major steps towards the simplification of income tax return filing.

He said efforts were being made to facilitate electronic filing through Sahaj and Sugam IT return forms.