“The due date of furnishing of Return of Income for the Assessment Year 2021-22, which was 31st July, 2021 under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, as extended to 30th September, 2021 vide Circular No.9/2021 dated 20.05.2021, is hereby further extended to 31st December, 2021," Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier, ITR filing deadline was already extended to September 30, 2021, from the usual deadline of July 31, 2021.

CBDT also extended several other forms under Income-Tax 1961(Act) for the assessment year 2021-2022:

-The due date of furnishing of Report of Audit under any provision of the Act for the Previous Year 2020-21, which is 30th September, 2021, as extended to 31st October, 2021 has also been further extended to 15th January, 2022.

-The due date of furnishing Report from an Accountant by persons entering into international transaction or specified domestic transaction under section 92E of the Act for the Previous Year 2020-21, which is 31st October, 2021, as extended to 30th November, 2021, is hereby further extended to 31st January, 2022. 

-The due date of furnishing of Return of Income for the Assessment Year 2021-22, which is 31st October, 2021 under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, as extended to 30th November, 2021, is hereby further extended to 15th February, 2022.

-The due date of furnishing of Return of Income for the Assessment Year 2021-22, which is 30th November, 2021 under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, as extended to 31st December, 2021, is hereby further extended to 28th February, 2022.

-The due date of furnishing of belated/revised Return of Income for the Assessment Year 2021-22, which is 31st December, 2021 under sub-section (4)/sub-section (5) of section 139 of the Act, as extended to 31st January, 2022, is hereby further extended to 31st March, 2022.

On Wednesday, the Finance Ministry said a number of technical issues were being “progressively addressed" and there has been a positive trend reflected in the statistics of the various filings on the website.

More than 8.83 crore unique taxpayers have logged in till Tuesday with a daily average of over 15.55 lakh in September. The Income Tax Return (ITR) filing has increased to 3.2 lakh daily in September and 1.19 crore ITRs for AY 2021-22 have been filed. Of these, over 76.2 lakh taxpayers have used the online utility of the portal to file the returns, an official release said.

Over 94.88 lakh ITRs have been e-verified out of which, 7.07 lakh ITRs have been processed, the statement added.

The new I-T portal has been facing a lot of glitches since the time of its launch. Recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman conveyed to Infosys CEO Salil Parekh in no uncertain terms the government's "deep disappointment and concern" over the continuing glitches in the new income tax filing portal and set September 15 as the deadline for the software major to resolve all snags.

As glitches continued to mar the functioning of the portal even after over two months of its launch, Sitharaman summoned Parekh at her office here to know the reasons for not resolving the snags in the portal.

A statement issued by the Income Tax Department said that during the meeting the finance minister emphasised that there is a need for putting in more resources and efforts on the part of Infosys so that the much-delayed delivery of agreed services is ensured.