E-filing of Income Tax returns will be further simplified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) which said it is encouraged by the increasing number of taxpayers taking the online route. 

The e-filing of returns this financial year saw a jump of 40 per cent with 25,647 crore online returns being filed till March 22 as compared with over 1.80 crore e-returns filed by taxpayers during the corresponding period last year. 

"We are trying to further simplify the e-filing procedures. Let us see what all can we do. We are progressing very fast on this issue," CBDT Chairman R K tewari told reporters here. 

Tewari said that e-filing is catching up even amongst those people who are not stipulated to file their returns by the way of e-filing. 

The percent composition of such taxpayers was close to 66 per cent, he said. 

A total of 52 per cent people, Tewari said, chose to file their e-returns after office hours which shows that people are filing their tax returns at the leisure of their homes and other places through laptops or personal computers. 

Belting out some figures, the Chairman said the Central Processing Centre (CPC) of the department in Bengaluru, which receives I-T returns, is processing 2.80 lakh returns per month and till February 28 (financial year 2013-14) six crore returns have been processed. 

The number of days taken to completely process the e-returns, the officer said, has also come down from 70 to 61 days. 

"A total of Rs 7,700 crore demand has been collected through the CPC," he said. (PTI)