The Income Tax (I-T) department has refunded over Rs 39,000 crore to taxpayers during 2006-07 against refunds of Rs 29,000 crore in 2005-06.

Tax officials noted that there had been an increase of almost 33% in processing refunds, especially after finance minister P Chidambaram introduced the tax return preparer scheme to help small and medium taxpayers file returns.

Similarly, during the first two weeks of April 2007 alone the department issued refunds amounting to Rs 1,834 crore. With a view to ensuring error-free expedition of the issuance of refunds and bring in transparency, the minister had in January this year introduced a refund banker scheme on a pilot basis in Delhi and Patna, noted an I-T official.

He said, under the scheme, over 30,000 refunds have been made so far. These include refunds made through the electronic clearance system as well as paper refunds, in which case the refunds were directly credited to bank accounts within 15 days.

Processing tax returns is a tedious task and consumes a lot of time. Moreover, the department receives over 3.20 crore tax returns. It takes almost four months to complete the electronic processing of returns, noted the official.

Also, taxpayers failure to furnish accurate, complete bank details delayed the task further, he added.

Getting Dues
During the first two weeks of April 2007, the department issued refunds amounting to Rs 1,834 crore
There has been a rise of 33% in processing refunds, mostly after the tax return preparer Scheme was introduced