The Income Tax Department on Wednesday said it will refund the excess interest and late fee paid by taxpayers due to software error while filing ITR for 2020-21. The last date for filing ITR for the last financial year has been extended till September 30, 2021, from July 31 to give taxpayers compliance relief during the pandemic. However, some taxpayers complained that interest and late fee was charged while filing income tax return (ITR) after July 31, 2021.

The department in a tweet said the ITR software was rectified on August 1 itself to remove the error due to incorrect computation of interest under section 234A and late fee under section 234F of Income Tax Act.

"Taxpayers have been advised to use the latest version of the ITR preparation software or file online. If, by any chance, someone has already submitted the ITR with such incorrect interest or late fee, the same will be correctly calculated while processing at CPC-ITR and the excess amount paid, if any, will be refunded in the normal course," the I-T department tweeted.

Nangia & Co LLP Partner Shailesh Kumar said having errors or bugs in ITR or any other e-filing utility is a common phenomenon.

After realising the errors/ bugs, the Income Tax Department releases a new version of such e-filing utility, removing the error/ bug.

"Thus, taxpayers are always advised to check the latest e-filing utility, while filing their ITR. If any errors are still found, then it must be reported to the concerned authorities for necessary resolution," Kumar said.

The portal, launched on June 7, and was developed by Infosys. As of July 30, the website, which has been marred by glitches, had received over 25 lakh returns, more than 3.57 crore unique logins and has allocated over 7.90 lakh e-PANs, according to official data.