Not extending December 31 deadline to file IT returns: Finance Ministry

Laggards waiting for an extension of date for filing of income tax returns (ITR) must not delay further and file their ITR by today, December 31.

The Union Finance Ministry said on Friday that there is no proposal to extend the due date for ITR filing.

“By 3 pm today, 5.62 crore returns had been filed in total. Today, more than 20 lakh returns were filed. This year, 60 lakh more returns have been filed,” revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj said, according to media reports.

The statement comes in response to speculations that the tax deadline could be extended once again for the financial year ending March 2021, following a letter by domestic traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) earlier this week. The deadline for ITR was earlier extended for five months till December 31.

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Failing to file the returns by the mentioned deadline can attract penalties of up to Rs 5,000.

The maximum penalty was Rs 10,000 until last year which was then reduced to Rs 5,000. Taxpayers were levied a fine of Rs 10,000 if they filed their returns late – between December 31 and March 31 – and a penalty of Rs 5,000 for filing their returns between August and December. However, from this year, the maximum penalty has been reduced to Rs 5,000.