New Delhi: A recent survey conducted by LocalCircles found that individual taxpayers in flood-affected states, including Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi NCR, have been unable to file their income tax returns due to extreme weather conditions.
The survey highlighted that 14 per cent of individual income taxpayers will be unable to meet the 31st July deadline for filing income tax returns.
According to the survey conducted by the community-based social media platform, which received over 12,000 responses from citizens located in 315 districts of India — 27 per cent of respondents reported not having filed their income tax returns yet.
The survey results revealed that 7 in 10 have already filed their returns, 5 per cent experienced difficulties but will attempt to file by 31 July, 8 per cent plan to do so comfortably by month-end, 5 per cent anticipate significant effort to meet the deadline, and 9 per cent indicated that it will be impossible to file on time.
An additional 14 per cent acknowledged that they will likely be unable to submit their tax returns by the deadline.
Calls for relief
Last week, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra stated that extending the 31st July deadline for filing income tax returns is unlikely and urged taxpayers to file their returns as soon as possible.
However, in light of the challenges faced by taxpayers in flood-affected areas, community discussions on LocalCircles suggest that the government should consider granting a two-week deadline extension.
This extension would allow many income taxpayers in these states to complete their tax returns as the situation on the ground begins to stabilize.
“Alternatively, the government could consider giving deadline extension to residents of just those states,” the survey noted.