New Delhi, July 30: The Finance Ministry recently announced that the last date to file the income tax return has been extended to August 31, as compared to the previous date of July 31. In a tweet, the announcement said "Upon consideration of the matter, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) extends the ‘Due Date’ for filing of Income Tax Returns from 31st July, 2018 to 31st August, 2018 in respect of the said categories of taxpayers." However, according to a Times of India report, that returns filed for the last financial year, had more than doubled to nearly 3 crore, and the number of refund cases cleared so far have also shot by over 81 percent to 65 lakh.

Reportedly, with the new system of processing returns, the tax payers, and the government have been able to close cases earlier, and as a result of which the refunds are also not held up. The reason behind the spurt in filing is because people were taking into account the July 31 deadline. On top of it, the government also had introduced a stringent fine system for any late filing. How to File Income Tax Online? 5 Easy Websites Which You can Use

There will be no late fee fine till August 31. However, if you file your ITR after the above mentioned date, you will have to pay a fine of Rs 5,000. If you further delay it and don't file it before December 31, 2018, you may have to pay a fine of Rs 10,000. However, if your annual income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh per annum, the fine on late ITR filing will be Rs 1,000.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 30, 2018 12:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).