Income Tax refunds alert! Important ITR message from CBDT - What I-T return filers should know

Income Tax Refunds: In a major development, the income tax department has said that it has issued refunds of over Rs 1.48 lakh crore to more than 1.02 crore taxpayers till December 14. Of this, personal income tax refunds worth Rs 45,264 crore and corporate tax refunds of Rs 1.03 lakh crore have been issued.

"CBDT issues refunds of over Rs 1,48,274 crore to more than 1.02 crore taxpayers between April 1, 2020, to December 14, 2020. Income tax refunds of Rs 45,264 crore have been issued in 1,00,02,982 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 1,03,010 crore have been issued in 2,00,854 cases," the department said in a tweet.

The CBDT is the administrative authority for the tax department.

Meanwhile, the Income Tax Department has detected black income of about Rs 700 crore after it raided a Tamil Nadu-based group that undertakes civil government contracts, the CBDT said on Thursday. The department also seized Rs 21 crore "unaccounted cash" during the searches.

The raids were carried out on December 14 at 15 premises in Erode and Chennai against the group which is a "leading civil contractor for government works, specialised in erecting sea wave breakers along the coastlines and is also diversified into bus transport, running marriage halls and food masala business".

"It was found that the group indulges in inflation of purchases and other work contract expenses. Such inflated payments made to the suppliers and sub-contractors are received back in cash regularly," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement. The unaccounted income thus generated comes to around Rs 700 crore, which is "ploughed back" into real estate investments and business expansion, it said. Out of this, the assessee has admitted to having undisclosed income of Rs 150 crore, so far, the Board claimed.