In a development, the majority of India’s income the taxpayer would required to transition to the new tax regime for the present assessment year. 72% of those who furnished their returns by the July 31 due date chose the new tax regime that contributed to a record high of nearly 7.29 crore ITR filings as per the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
ITR Filing Data and Insights
CBDT has notified that from 7.28 crore Income Tax returns filed for the AY 2024-25, nearly 5.27 crore were beneath the new tax regime compared to 2.01 crore under the old regime. The same transformation is discovered as a positive sign with the CBDT specifying the rise in the taxpayers under the new regime as heartening.
Modification in New Income Tax Regime
The new tax regime presented in 2020 has been made appealing following the influential revisions announced in Budget 2023-24. Such revisions comprise of-
- Reduction of tax rate slabs from six to five.
- Increase in the tax-free income limit from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹3 lakh.
- Hike in the tax rebate limit from ₹5 lakh to ₹7 lakh per year.
- Increase in the standard deduction from ₹50,000 to ₹75,000.
Such adjustments possibly expedited the switchover to the new regime, which has incurred the default tax regime for the assessees.
ITR Filings Hit High First Time
It was remarked by the counsel that nearly 58.6 lakh IT returns were filed via first-time filers showing a broadening of the tax base. But the back of the envelope computes recommendations that aforesaid 7.19 lakh assessee who filed their returns within the said time in the former year lose the due date this year.
Improved ITR e-filing at 2.0 Portal
CBDT chairperson Ravi Agarwal in answer to such concerns for the sluggish processing and downtimes on the IT e-filing portal confirmed that the managing capacity of the portal has been increased. It is shown with the data that such rectification was successful with the ITR filings rising from 28 lakh on July 24 to almost 70 lakh on July 31.
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The peak filing day encountered over 69.92 lakh ITRs filed with the highest per-hour rate of 5.07 lakh recorded between 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Amazing Portal Performance
During the peak period, the performance of the e-filing portal was significant-
- On July 17 early morning, the highest per-second rate of ITR filings was 917.
- On July 31 the highest per-minute rate of ITR filings was 9,367 at 8.08 p.m.
- On July 31, successful logins stood at 3.2 crore.
Also using the online utility available on the e-filing portal 43.82% of Income tax returns were filed with the remainder filed via offline ITR utilities.
Closure: The new record of IT return filings and a transfer to the new tax regime shows the effectiveness of the recent tax policy amendments and rectification in the e-filing system. The more the taxpayers avail the simplified new tax regime the more efficiency and inclusivity is there in the Indian tax landscape.
