Millions of taxpayers are waiting for refunds for AY 2025-26. CBDT Chairman Ravi Agrawal confirms intense scrutiny on high-value and ‘wrongful deduction’ claims, slowing the process. Find out the exact reasons for the hold-up, the expected clearance timeline by December, and how to track your status.
ITR Refund Delay Reasons CBDT Chairman Update December Timeline
The prolonged wait for Income Tax Refunds (ITR) for Assessment Year (AY) 2025-26 has become a significant source of anxiety for millions of Indian taxpayers. Despite the filing deadline having passed, a considerable backlog persists, pushing the issue to the top of trending financial queries.
Speaking at a recent public event, Agrawal confirmed that while low-value refunds are generally being processed swiftly and released in a timely manner, the department is currently engaged in a deeper, more meticulous evaluation of a specific category of returns. These are the returns that have been either automatically tagged as high-value claims or explicitly ‘red-flagged’ by the system due to perceived inconsistencies or unusually large deduction requests.
The Chairman explicitly stated that the department has observed instances where taxpayers were claiming deductions they were ineligible for or reporting figures that did not align with official records. This necessary scrutiny into potential wrongful deductions is the primary reason for the extended processing time. The Income Tax Department is using advanced analytics to cross-verify the data submitted in the ITR against records like the Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Form 26AS. Where significant mismatches or questionable patterns are detected, the system intelligently pauses the refund until an officer manually reviews the file.
In a proactive measure aimed at rectifying genuine errors and speeding up resolution, the department has also begun corresponding directly with taxpayers, urging those whose returns show minor discrepancies or missing information to file a revised ITR. This step is designed to enable faster, automated processing once the correct details are submitted, preventing the return from being unnecessarily flagged for manual investigation.
Crucially, Mr. Agrawal offered a concrete timeline, assuring the waiting public that the department is working tirelessly to clear the pending inventory. He expressed confidence that the majority of the remaining legitimate refunds would be released by the end of this month or by December. This announcement provides a much-needed assurance, suggesting that the current wave of processing delays is temporary and expected to ease significantly in the coming weeks.
