Income Tax refund getting delayed, these could be the reasons

After the last day of filing income tax returns (ITRs) on January 10, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) came out with some figures about the refunds issued thus far. The CBDT said on Wednesday (January 13) that it had issued refunds of about Rs 1,73,139 crores to as many as 15.7 million taxpayers in India from April 1, 2020 to January 11, 2021.

The CBDT issued refunds of Rs 57,139 crores in 15,455,577 cases and it also issued corporate tax refunds of Rs 1,15,999 crore in 210,150 cases.

It is reported that the ITRs are getting processed faster this time, which has led to refunds being issued within a week. The income tax department also introduced 'Jhatpat Processing', which has made it easier for taxpayers to file their returns.

Still, many people took to social media to say that they were yet to get their refunds even when they filed their ITRs many months ago.

Here are the reasons why refunds may have been delayed:

Problem with details of bank accounts

The income tax department is issuing refunds only electronically this time. This means that refunds are credited directly to the bank accounts and if there is an issue with the details of the same, the refunds would get delayed.

The bank account details can be corrected online on the income tax department's portal. It is to be noted that the bank account is required to be linked with the PAN.

ITR not verified

Another reason why the refunds may not have been issued is that the income tax returns were not verified. It is an important part of the process and therefore, the taxpayers should check if it was done so that they can get their refunds.

Bank account requiring prevalidation

The income tax refunds can only be issued to the bank accounts that are prevalidated. It can be done on the tax department's website. The taxpayers can log in with their PAN and password and choose the option to prevalidate their bank account. It requires a bank account number, mobile number, IFSC code and email ID linked to the bank account to finish the process.