The government on Friday ruled out extending the deadline for the filing of income tax returns, saying there were no problems faced by taxpayers in filing returns .

As the ITR filing deadline draws to a close, over 5.62 crore returns have been filed till 3pm, 14 per cent higher than the 4.93 crore filed till December 31 last year.

Revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj said ITR filing is going on “very smoothly”.

“Today people have filed more than 20 lakh return which is the highest and in the last one hour, 3.44 lakh returns have been filed. ”

“So if returns are being filed in such numbers, I see no reason for anybody to claim (deadline extension),” Bajaj told reporters.

Narayan Jain, chairman, DTPA Representation Committee, felt that tax professionals are disappointed at the government for not allowing the extension of date for furnishing returns.

“Many taxpayers are unable to file ITR due to bonafide reasons and for technical glitches in the income tax portal which persisted since inception,” Jain said.

"Even now many features are not properly working like in case of executor of estate, legal heirs as also for exercising option of choosing alternate tax regime and in the case of the use of digital signature certificates (DSC).”

"The dates have been extended for filing of E Forms MGT 7/7A till 28th Feb 2022. Likewise extension has been granted for filing GST Form 9C etc till 28th Feb 2022,” Jain said.