So the tax filing season is back and you are wondering what happened to your tax refund. In India, there is a provision under the Act by way of which a taxpayer can claim refund by filing Form 30 within one year from the end of the assessment year to the Indian Revenue.

If there is a delay in payment of refund, there is also a provision which requires the Indian Revenue to pay interest to the tax payer in addition to the tax amount.

Now individual tax-payer is allowed to track
the status of his/ her income tax refund on-line.

It is known as ‘Refund Banker Scheme’ wherein the refund generated on processing of income-tax returns by the assessing officers/ central processing centre, Bangalore is transmitted to State Bank of India, CMP branch, Mumbai (Refund Banker) on the next day of processing for further distribution to the taxpayer.

Currently, it is operational for non-corporate taxpayers assessed in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Patna, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chandigarh, Allahabad, and Kanpur. The important features of this system are summarised below:

• i.e. ECS and paper. In case of ECS mode, the taxpayer is required to quote bank account number and MICR code of bank branch at the time of submission of income tax return.
• Taxpayers can view status of refund online after 10 days of processing of refund by the assessing officer to the Refund Banker.
• The taxpayer can track the status of the refund online at the website of the income-tax department www.incometaxindia.gov.in by clicking on “Status of Tax Refunds”.

Refund status can be tracked by entering the PAN and assessment year for which refund is to be tracked.

Apart from online tracking of refund as mentioned above, if the refund is not paid to the taxpayer on time, he may also approach the income-tax ombudsman with his/ her grievances.