Have queries on Income Tax refund? Write to the taxman using these two routes

What can an ordinary taxpayer do when his claims for Income Tax refund go unanswered for months? Income Tax law practitioners say they can write to the IT department bringing their case to the notice of the officials.

Chartered accountants and IT lawyers said that the only way a taxpayer can bring his pending claim to the notice of the department is by writing a mail to the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC).

“In case of refund failure, a taxpayer can raise the service request in e-filing portal. Click on ‘My Account’ menu and click ‘Service Request’ link. Select the ‘Request Type’ as ‘New Request’ and select the ‘Request Category’ as ‘Refund Reissue’ and Click Submit,” explained Soumyadipta Das, Chartered Accountant, outlining the steps one needs to do.

Tapas Chakraborty, a Chartered Accountant, also said that one has to write the details of his case in the mail and pray for an early disposal. “There is nothing more that one can do. There is no opportunity to meet any official for this purpose and plead for one’s case,” said Chakraborty.

Central Board of Direct Taxes officials told Money9 that apart from writing through the link available on the e-filing portal, one can also write to the department via a link for any queries/concerns related to the processing of their ITRs, refunds or any other related issue.

The Finance Ministry has said that for FY20, the IT refunds are far higher than the earlier year.

“CBDT has issued refunds of more than Rs 2.62 lakh crore to more than 2.38 crore taxpayers from 1.04.2020 to 31.03.2021, as against total refunds of Rs 1.83 lakh crore issued during corresponding period of previous fiscal, marking an increase of almost 43.2%,” Finance Ministry said in a statement on April 1.

Out of this amount, approximately Rs 87,749 crore was issued in 2,34,27,418 cases, which was non-corporate tax.

The Union Finance Ministry has said that the government has taken special care this year to refund IT dues to the taxpayers “to provide immediate relief to the taxpayers” in view of the pandemic-triggered economic deceleration.

“Common sense tells us that IT refunds should take place sequentially — the claims should be taken up in the chronological order. However, we have no idea how the cases are picked and disposed off,” said Himadri Mukherjee, Income Tax lawyer and former secretary of the Income Tax Bar Association.

Chakraborty also pointed out that it is likely that the IT department is supposed to pay interest on refunds at 0.5% simple interest per month. “Therefore, it makes sense for them to pay the high value refunds first,” said Chakraborty.