Will government extend ITR filing deadline due to widespread floods in India?

The deadline for filing ITR for the assessment year 2023-2024 (FY2022-23) is July 31, 2023, at present. Taxpayers are in hurry to file their income tax returns (ITRs) for FY 2023 so that they do not land up paying fine by missing the last date.

Last week Sanjay Malhotra, the revenue secretary, had urged people who owe income taxes to file their returns as soon as possible because the finance ministry has no plans to extend the July 31 deadline.

Out of the 5.03 crore ITRs filed till 27th July, 2023, about 4.46 crore ITRs have been e-verified i.e. more than 88% ITRs filed have been e-verified, stated a tweet by the Income Tax Department.

Floods in many states

Many taxpayers and CA associations are requesting for an extension of the ITR filing deadline in certain states as a result of floods in certain areas disrupting the lives if individuals. In 2018, the CBDT had taken this action in the wake of the Kerala floods that have caused disruption in the Income Tax Returns filing mechanism and extended the date from August 31, to September 15, 2018.

Many areas of India, severe landslides, floods have reportedly occurred in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Assam. The Yamuna bank flood interrupted many people's lives and forced thousands of people to leave even in NCR. There were floods in Telangana, Gujarat and Maharashtra as well. Delhi Maharshtra and Gujarat have a big tax filing population.

LocalCircles, a Delhi-based market research firm, polled 12,000 Indians from 315 districts for this survey. According to a press release from LocalCircles, 5% tried to file ITR but were facing difficulties, 8% waiting for the last week to file ITR, 9% said impossible to file ITR by July 31.

Also read: 14% taxpayers won’t be able to meet ITR filing deadline of July 31, 2023: Survey

This year, due to harsh weather conditions in 7-8 states and their impact on certain people's life, "the survey finds that it is likely that 14% individual income taxpayers will be unable to meet the July 31st deadline for filing income tax returns," according to a study from LocalCircles.

“Feedback in community discussions on LocalCircles indicates most people want just a 2-week extension to be able to file their returns as the flood and power outage situation on the ground normalises,” said LocalCircles in a survey note.

Issues with ITR filing portal

Some taxpayers are facing issues when filing their taxes, individuals took Twitter to complain about their issues and some of them requested to extend the deadline.