Sitharaman outlines 5Rs of responsive tax governance, calls for greater tax certainty
New Delhi [India], July 24 (ANI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday highlighted record Income Tax Return (ITR) filings and improvements in grievance redressal, while urging the Income Tax Department to further expedite refund processing to strengthen taxpayer confidence and enhance ease of compliance.
Addressing the 167th Income Tax Day celebrations, the first since the "Income Tax Act, 2025" came into force, the Finance Minister said the Department's role has expanded beyond revenue collection to include fairness, ease of doing business and citizen-centric service delivery. She outlined 5Rs of responsive tax governance.
The Minister said the current income tax filing season has recorded significant milestones, with the e-Filing portal handling more than one crore taxpayer interactions in a single day after its computing capacity and bandwidth were enhanced. Peak interactions touched nearly 1.6 crore in a day.
As of July 21, over 3.2 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) had been filed, of which 94 per cent had been verified and 60 per cent processed.
The Minister said the Department had received more than 1.3 crore refund claims, with 96 per cent verified and 40 per cent processed. She stressed the need to further reduce processing timelines, stating that faster refunds strengthen taxpayer confidence and improve liquidity.
Highlighting improvements in grievance redressal, Sitharaman said the Department resolved 94 per cent of nearly 78,000 grievances received through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) during FY 2025-26. The average disposal time was reduced from 57 days to 28 days, while nearly two-thirds of the complaints were resolved within three weeks.
She added that on the e-Nivaran platform, 95 per cent of around 3.5 lakh grievances had been disposed of, with the average resolution time reduced to 42 days.
The Minister highlighted a five-point framework for the Department, Recognise, Respond, Redress, Reflect and Reform, urging officers to treat grievances as opportunities for institutional learning rather than mere complaints to be closed out.
"A taxpayer is not merely an assessee; a taxpayer is a citizen and a partner in India's development," the Minister said.
On tax certainty, Sitharaman said the pendency of appeals had declined by more than 34,000 cases to 5.4 lakh. She also noted that around 6,000 departmental appeals were withdrawn following the revised monetary thresholds announced in the Union Budget 2024-25, enabling the Department to focus on cases involving substantial questions of law.
She said the Department's efforts to reduce litigation should rest on three key pillars -- clarity, consistency and continuous institutional learning.
The Finance Minister also reviewed infrastructure development within the Department, noting progress on new office complexes in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Noida. She announced that the new Aayakar Sindhu office complex in Mumbai would be inaugurated within the next two days.
Alongside physical infrastructure, the Minister called for stronger training in AI, data analytics, forensic accounting, international taxation, transfer pricing, digital assets and cybersecurity.
Concluding her address, the Minister outlined seven guiding principles for the Department: deepening voluntary compliance, simplifying taxpayer experience, strengthening tax certainty, responsibly harnessing technology, building institutional excellence, strengthening public trust, and embracing continuous improvement, framing them as mutually reinforcing goals on the path to Viksit Bharat by 2047. (ANI)
