New Delhi, Jan 1 (IANS): The announcement by Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj on the last day of 2021 seems to have worked, as 46.11 lakh Income Tax Returns (ITRs) were filed on December 31, 2021, taking the overall total to 5.89 crore for the 2021-22 assessment year (AY).

Bajaj had announced that the government will not extend the due date for ITR filing, as it did in 2020 when the ITR filing due date was extended till January 10, 2021, which witnessed 31.05 lakh ITRs being filed on the last date.

In 2020-21, the total number of ITRs filed was 5.95 crore, a bit higher to 2021-22, which stood at 5.89 crore.

Out of 5.89 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22 as on December 31, 2021, 49.6 per cent are ITR-1 (2.92 crore), 9.3 per cent are ITR-2 (54.8 lakh), 12.1 per cent are ITR-3 (71.05 lakh), 27.2 per cent are ITR-4 (1.60 crore), and 1.3 per cent are ITR-5 (7.66 lakh).

Over 45.7 per cent of ITRs have been filed using the online ITR form on the portal and the balance have been uploaded using the ITR created from the offline software utilities.

In order to assist taxpayers with a smooth experience on the portal, 16,850 taxpayer calls and 1,467 chats were responded to by the helpdesk. In addition, the department has been proactively engaging with and reaching out to taxpayers and professionals for assistance on its official Twitter handle.

On December 31, 2021 alone, more than 230 Tweets from taxpayers and professionals were responded to, informed the Ministry of Finance.