ITR filing: 66% taxpayers opted for new regime in current season, says CBDT chairman

About 66% of taxpayers out of the over 4 crore filers have opted for the new regime for income tax return (ITR) filing during the current season till now, CBDT Chairman Ravi Agrawal said on Wednesday, July 24.

He told PTI during a post-Budget interview that the focus of the government and the direct taxes administration is on "simplification" of the tax processes including filing of ITRs and conduct of other businesses with the Income Tax Department.

"The philosophy (of the government) is that the more you simplify, the more it will make it easy for people to comply leading to increased compliance. This is also reflected from the fact that, as on date, the number of returns (ITRs) that have been filed till yesterday is significantly more than the returns filed during the same time in the corresponding (last) year," Agrawal said.

Last year, the figure of 4 crore ITR filings was crossed on July 25 but this time this number was crossed on the night of July 22, he said.

He said there was "sufficient traction" for the new tax regime and about 66% of ITR filings, as of today, were made under the new regime.

"We expect that going forward we should get more (under the new ITR regime)...," he said.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chief said about 7.5 crore ITRs were filed the last time at the end of the deadline on July 31. The current ITR filing season for assessment year 2024-25 will similarly end on July 31 for different categories of taxpayers whose accounts are not supposed to be audited.

The CBDT chief said more transactions are being automatically reported to the taxpayers (while filing ITR) and this means that more information is being made available to the taxpayer.

"So, therefore, we expect that the compliance will be more because simplification is also simultaneously taking place," he said.

So far, the CBDT chief said, as the new tax regime is concerned, the government is nudging the taxpayer towards opting for it and therefore this is being sweetened also, by way of changing the tax slabs, which gives benefit to the taxpayers.

Asked about the end of the old regime, Agrawal said the process was in the "transition stage" and a call would be taken at an appropriate time after it is seen which regime has better acceptability among the taxpayers.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget proposals announced on Tuesday had raised the standard deduction for salaried individuals to ₹75,000 from ₹25,000 and also tweaked the tax rate structure or slabs for taxpayers opting for the new income tax regime.

"As a result of these changes, a salaried employee in the new tax regime stands to save up to ₹17,500 in income tax," she said. The FM said during the last fiscal (2023-24) more than two-thirds of individual filers availed the new income tax regime.