A top Central Board of Direct Taxes official said Tuesday that the income-tax department has picked up 68,000 income-tax returns for e-verification for the assessment year 2019 -- 20 because of discrepancy in income involving high-value transactions. Nitin Gupta, CBDT chairman, said the list included both corporate and individual income tax returns. He said these were flagged by the system as high value transactions picked by the annual information system AIS did not match with the returns filed. On a pilot basis, about 68,000 cases pertaining to the 2019 -- 20 fiscal have been taken up for e-verification on a pilot basis based on risk management parameters set by the department, according to Gupta. He said that taxpayers have already responded to the notice or filed updated tax returns, so of all the selected cases, in 35,000 cases, which is 56% of total cases. No responses were received in the remaining 33,000 cases. Taxpayers have until March 31 to file updated returns for income earned in the 2019 -- 20 fiscal year. The department has received 1.5 million updated returns and 1,250 crore worth of tax so far. The e-verification process allows the taxpayers to correct any discrepancies in their income tax returns filed and the information captured by the AIS, giving them the opportunity to respond to the department. Taxpayers will have 15 days to respond to the query, and the whole process will be closed by 90 days, Gupta said. Taxpayers can provide an explanation for the mismatch by writing a letter to the tax department. They have the option to file an updated return. This is a tax-friendly initiative. The move will reduce tax litigation and improve tax compliance once an assessee files updated ITR, so there is less chance that his case will be picked up for scrutiny or re-assessment, according to Gupta. The department will take more cases for e-verification in the next fiscal year, as it already has a large database of tax filers, according to Gupta.