Rs.65,000 crore tax refund so far this fiscal: Revenue secretary

New Delhi, Jan 1 The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has made refunds of a record total of Rs.65,000 crore so far in the current financial year, the government said on Saturday.

"Between April (2015) and now, CBDT has issued refunds to 1.98 crore assesses for an amount of Rs. 65,000 crore. This is a record in itself," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said in a tweet.

"In the last month's special drive, 18.28 lakh assesses whose refunds were below Rs.50,000 involving a sum of Rs.1,793 crore have been issued," he said in another tweet.

The CBDT had in December 2015 asked its Central Processing Centre in Bengaluru and field officers to expeditiously issue refunds of amounts less than Rs.50,000.

On Friday, the finance ministry ordered expediting the process of issuing small refunds, directing that refunds up to Rs.5,000, and those in cases where outstanding arrears are up to Rs.5,000, may be issued without any adjustment of outstanding arrears.