More than 30.75 lakh audit reports have been filed for the assessment year 2023-24, till the due date of September 30, according to the union ministry of finance. Of this, 29.5 lakh tax audit reports have been filed for the assessment year 2023-24, and other audit reports in form no. 29B, 29C, 10CCB etc, says the finance ministry.

According to the ministry, to facilitate the taxpayers, extensive outreach programmes were carried out. Around 55.4 lakh outreaches were done through emails, SMSs, and social media including videos along with information messages on the income tax portal to create awareness among the taxpayers to file the Tax Audit Reports and other audit forms within the due date.

"The e-filing portal successfully handled the traffic, providing a seamless experience to the taxpayers and tax professionals for filing the audit reports. This smooth filing experience has been appreciated by professionals on various platforms including social media," says the ministry.

"The e-filing helpdesk team has handled approximately 2.36 lakh queries from the taxpayers in September supporting the taxpayers and tax professionals proactively during the filing period, helping them resolve any complexity involved. The support from the helpdesk was provided through inbound calls, outbound calls, live chats, Webex and co-browsing sessions. The Helpdesk team also supported the resolution of queries received on the Twitter handle of the Department through Online Response Management (ORM), by proactively reaching out to the taxpayers/stakeholders, and providing assistance to them on different issues on a near real-time basis. Various webinars related to the filing of Audit forms were conducted to guide the Tax professionals," it adds.

According to the income tax department, a proper audit for tax purposes would ensure that the books of account and other records are properly maintained, that they truly reflect the income of the taxpayer and that claims for deduction are correctly made by him/her.

"Such audit would also help in checking fraudulent practices. It can also facilitate the administration of tax laws by a proper presentation of accounts before the tax authorities and considerably save the time of assessing officers in carrying out routine verifications, like checking the correctness of totals and verifying whether purchases and sales are properly vouched for or not. The time the Assessing Officers saved could be utilised for attending to more important and investigational aspects of a case," says the I-T department.

Notably, the finance ministry had earlier said that more than 3 crore income tax returns have been filed for the assessment year 2033-24.

Union Ministry of Finance

Arvind Shrivastava takes charge as revenue secretary

Over 30.75 lakh audit reports filed for AY24: FinMin