Will government extend ITR filing deadline due to widespread floods in India?

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Last week Sanjay Malhotra, the revenue secretary, had urged people who owe income taxes to file their returns as soon as possible because the finance ministry has no plans to extend the July 31 deadline. Out of the 5.03 crore ITRs filed till 27th July, 2023, about 4.46 crore ITRs have been e-verified i.e. more than 88% ITRs filed have been e-verified, stated a tweet by the Income Tax Department.

Many taxpayers and CA associations are requesting for an extension of the ITR filing deadline in certain states as a result of floods in certain areas disrupting the lives if individuals. In 2018, the CBDT had taken this action in the wake of the Kerala floods that have caused disruption in the Income Tax Returns filing mechanism and extended the date from August 31, to September 15, 2018.

Actual cost of missing July 31 ITR filing deadline is much more than penalty

Many areas of India, severe landslides, floods have reportedly occurred in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Assam. The Yamuna bank flood interrupted many people's lives and forced thousands of people to leave even in NCR. There were floods in Telangana, Gujarat and Maharashtra as well. Delhi Maharshtra and Gujarat have a big tax filing population. LocalCircles, a Delhi-based market research firm, polled 12,000 Indians from 315 districts for this survey. According to a press release from LocalCircles, 5% tried to file ITR but were facing difficulties, 8% waiting for the last week to file ITR, 9% said impossible to file ITR by July 31.Also read:14% taxpayers won’t be able to meet ITR filing deadline of July 31, 2023: Survey This year, due to harsh weather conditions in 7-8 states and their impact on certain people's life, «the