tax news - Rightsofemployees.com

Tax Refund Backlog: Why Your Income Tax Return is Delayed and When You Can Expect Payment

Chandani — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 11:30:17 +0000

Despite the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) receiving over 7.57 crore Income Tax Returns (ITR) by the revised deadline of September 16, a significant number of taxpayers still await their refunds for the Assessment Year 2025–26.

More than two months after the filing period, CBDT Chairman Ravi Agrawal has provided clarity on the backlog and set a clear timeline for resolution.

Also read: The Professional Exit: 10 Essential Steps to Take Before You Resign

The Core Reason for Delays: System Scrutiny

Agrawal confirmed that the department is currently conducting a detailed review of certain refund claims that the system automatically flagged. The scrutiny process focuses on preventing erroneous or inflated payouts.

Reasons why the Income Tax Department’s system flags a claim include:

High-Value Claims: Returns with exceptionally large refund requests.
Incorrect Deductions: Claims where the system detects unusual or potentially ineligible deduction patterns.
Mismatched Data: Discrepancies between the data filed by the taxpayer and the information available to the department.

Agrawal stated the department is analyzing these cases carefully to prevent wrongful refunds. He also noted that officers are examining returns more closely where the system detected unusual deduction patterns, slowing down the overall process.

Action and Timeline for Resolution

To address the flagged claims, the tax department has taken proactive steps:

Requesting Revised Returns: The department has written to some taxpayers, advising them to file revised returns if they missed or wrongly reported any information.
Low-Value Claims Released: The department confirms it is already releasing low-value refunds quickly.

Timeline: CBDT Chairman Agrawal expects the department to clear the majority of the remaining pending refunds by the end of December 2025.

Context: The Drop in Refund Issuances

Official data indicates a sharp decrease in the total value of refunds issued this year. As of November 10, total refunds fell by nearly 18% to approximately ₹2.42 lakh crore compared to the same period last year.

Agrawal attributed this decline to two primary factors:

Fewer Claims: The overall number of refund claims has decreased.
TDS Rationalization: Earlier rationalization of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) rates led to smaller refund amounts overall.

Furthermore, Agrawal noted that the department is actively working to reduce direct tax litigation. Appellate authorities have cleared over 40% more appeals than last year, successfully reducing the pending backlog built up during previous years.

. . . . .

Also read: The Professional Exit: 10 Essential Steps to Take Before You Resign

The post Tax Refund Backlog: Why Your Income Tax Return is Delayed and When You Can Expect Payment first appeared on Rightsofemployees.com.

Windfall Tax Latest Update: What is windfall tax after all? There is a lot of discussion about putting it first and removing it now.

Pravesh Maurya — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 13:21:11 +0000

New Delhi: In order to control the prices of petroleum products in the domestic market, the government imposed windfall tax on their exports on July 1. The government has now cut it. A windfall tax of Rs 6 per liter was imposed on the export of petrol and ATF, while a tax of Rs 13 per liter was imposed on the export of diesel. Also, excise duty of Rs 23,230 per tonne was imposed on domestic crude.

In view of the recent fall in international crude oil prices, the government has reduced windfall tax on export of diesel and aviation fuel by Rs 2 per liter, while on export of petrol by Rs 6 per liter. The levy has been completely abolished. Along with this, the tax on the export of domestic crude has been reduced by 27 percent to Rs 17,000 per tonne. After the government’s imposition of widow tax and now removing this tax, this tax is in a lot of discussion. Let us know what is windfall tax and why does the government impose it?

What is windfall tax?

Windfall tax is levied on such companies or industries, which make immediate substantial gains in certain circumstances. Indian oil companies are a good example of this. International crude oil prices rose after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Oil companies got a lot of benefit from this. Oil companies were reaping huge profits due to the Russo-Ukraine war, so windfall tax was imposed on them. Not only India, Italy and UK also imposed this tax on their energy companies.

Who will benefit from the removal of windfall tax?

Reliance Industries, Oil India and Vedanta Limited will benefit from the windfall tax cut. Apart from these, Russia’s Rosnfeet Baked Naira Energy will also benefit, which operates a 20 million tonne annual refinery in Gujarat. Experts say that Reliance Industries will benefit the most. The company has two oil refineries in Gujarat. One of these is used only for export.

With the imposition of windfall tax on July 1, the cess on domestic crude oil increased to Rs 23,250 per tonne. The effect of increasing the cess was on the margins of the companies. Now by cutting windfall tax, the government has brought down the cess of Rs 23,250 per tonne on companies to Rs 17,000 per tonne, after which the margins of the companies have increased.

Impact on the exchequer

The government was expected to get Rs 69,000 crore annually from crude oil producers like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India Limited and Vedanta due to increase in windfall tax. Had the windfall tax remained in place till March 31, 2023, the government would have received about Rs 52,000 crore in the remaining nine months of the current financial year. Now the way the government has reduced its tax and cess, it will have a great impact on the government’s earnings.

The post Windfall Tax Latest Update: What is windfall tax after all? There is a lot of discussion about putting it first and removing it now. first appeared on Rightsofemployees.com.

Income Tax Return Big News: Even after claiming income tax refund, 1 rupee will not come in the account, know what is this rule?

Pravesh Maurya — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 10:28:26 +0000

Income Tax Return: Do you know that even if your refund is made on filing ITR, under a rule, the department does not return a single rupee to you. Let us know what is this rule?

The last date for filing Income Tax Return on behalf of the Income Tax Department for the financial year 2021-22 (Assessment Year 2022-23) is 31 July. Hope you have filed your ITR. If not done, then you should complete this work as soon as possible. Otherwise, you may face a penalty after this.

Refund comes in one to four weeks,
after filing Income Tax Return (ITR), you get a message from the Income Tax Department on your registered e-mail ID and mobile number whether your Income Tax Refund is made or not. . If your refund is generated by the Income Tax Department, it is usually credited to your account in one to four weeks.

No amount will come in the account,
but there is also a rule of income tax under which no money is returned to you by the department even after making a refund. That is, no amount will come in your bank account. Abhishek Soni, CEO of ITR filing website Tax2win, says that according to the press note issued by the government on January 5, 2012, if your income tax refund is less than Rs 100 according to the calculations of the Income Tax Department, then it is not sent to your bank account. .

The rule applies to the refund of less than Rs 100,
he said that if there is an income tax refund of Rs 100, it gets adjusted in your next year’s income tax refund. For example, if your income tax refund is made Rs 80 in the financial year 2020-21, then it will not be credited to your account. With this, in the next year 2021-22, if your income tax refund is Rs 70, then adding (80 + 70) Rs 150 for both the years will be credited to your account. If this figure is less than Rs 100, then this money is not given by the department.

Not only this, even if you have a tax liability, the amount less than Rs 100 gets adjusted in your income tax. Let us tell you that for the financial year 2021-22, the income tax return filing on behalf of the Income Tax Department has started from June 15, 2022. The last date to file ITR is 31st July. After this, you will have to pay a penalty on filing ITR.

The post Income Tax Return Big News: Even after claiming income tax refund, 1 rupee will not come in the account, know what is this rule? first appeared on Rightsofemployees.com.