ITR Refund: Possible Causes of Delay in ITR Refund and Steps to Address the Issue

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Filing an Income Tax Return (ITR) is typically undertaken to secure a refund when taxes paid surpass actual liabilities. Moreover, the issuance of the ITR refund normally occurs within a timeframe of 7 to 120 days from the filing date.

“In recent years, due to technological advancements and the transition to online filing, there has been a significant reduction in the average processing time for ITR refunds.”

The Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) processes the ITR before issuing the refund. To receive an ITR refund, individuals must pre-validate their bank account on the Income Tax website.

 

If, however, the ITR refund hasn’t reached a taxpayer due to account number discrepancies, they must check the bank account number and the Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) details provided during ITR filing.

 

They must ensure that the numbers are correct and match the account number and IFSC code as per the bank account. If need be, they must contact the bank to verify that the account is still active and that there are no holds on the account.

Following this, the taxpayer should contact the Income Tax (IT) department to request a refund re-issue, providing their Permanent Account Number (PAN), assessment year, and refund amount details.”

Here’s how to file a refund re-issue request via the Income Tax filing portal:

1. Log in to the Income Tax official website.
2. Click on the ‘My Account’ tab.
3. Click on the ‘Service Request’ link.
4. Choose the ‘Request Type’ as ‘New Request’ and select the ‘Request Category’ as ‘Refund Re-issue’ from the drop-down menu.
5. You will see the necessary information, including PAN, assessment year, and refund amount.
6. Click the ‘Submit’ hyperlink under the ‘Response’ column. The system will display the pre-validated bank account along with the enabled Electronic Verification Code (EVC).
7. Select the bank account and click ‘Continue’. The bank account details will be displayed.
8. Finally, choose the mode of e-verification, generate and enter EVC and submit the request.