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NEW DELHI: A 'lite' e-filing facility was launched by the income tax department on Thursday to facilitate easy and quick filing of returns by taxpayers. The facility was operatlionalised on the official portal of the department --https://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.

"The Income Tax department is launching 'e-Filing Lite', a lighter version of e-Filing portal with a focus on filing of Income Tax Return (ITR) by the taxpayers," the department said in a public advisory.

"The same can be accessed by clicking 'e-Filing Lite' button in home page. The current e-Filing portal having all the services can be accessed by clicking on 'Portal Login' button," it added.

A senior official said a new tab for 'lite' was provided on the web portal and once registered taxpayers log in their page, they will only be provided essential links that enable e-filing of ITRs and Form 26AS (for tax deducted at source credit). Taxpayers can download pre-filled or XML forms and view their past filed returns, among others.

Other regular tabs like e-proceeding, e-nivaran, compliance, worklist and profile setting were taken off from the 'lite version' but retained in the standard version of e-filing facility, he said.

The 'lite' version is aimed to enable easy and quick ITR filing by all categories of taxpayers, the official said.

On July 23, the government extended the due date for filing income tax returns by individuals for financial year 2018-19 by a month till August 31.