It appears that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has taken a decision to relaxe the time limit for processing income tax returns filed electronically owing to the fact that they were incorrectly invalidated by the CPC-Bengaluru due to the technical reasons.
CBDT Relaxed Time Limit For Processing Income Tax
Moving ahead, the CBDT directed that returns of income filed electronically up to March 31, 2024, which were erroneously invalidated, shall now be processed and intimations of these returns shall be sent to the assessees by March 31, 2026 in a circular which was issued on Monday.
This decision holds a significance as it would enable assessees to receive refunds along with applicable interest.
Please note here the refunds will not be made if PAN-Aadhaar linkage is not found, as per existing guidelines.
In this regard, the CBDT has instructed all concerned to comply with the directive and process the returns accordingly.
The CBDT said, “The matter has been considered by the Board and it has been decided to relax the timeframe prescribed in second provision to sub-section (1) of section 143 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) in exercise of its powers under section 119 of the Act. The Board hereby directs that returns of income filed electronically up to 31.03.2024, which have been erroneously invalidated by CPC, shall now be processed,” in the release.
Why Did This Happen?
With this move, the CBDT is trying to accommodate the mistakenly deemed invalid filings over technical reasons while processing the returns for different assessment years.
It appears the the ‘erroneously invalidated’ return filings were brought to the CBDT’s attention after many taxpayers filed their grievances with the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) Bengaluru as per the information given in the notice.
Further, the tax body mentioned, “The time period for processing these returns has lapsed, latest being 31.12.2024 for AY 2023-24. Therefore, these returns need to be validated and processed as per law,” in the statement.
Besides this, the Income Tax Department will send an official communication to the concerned taxpayers under Section 143(1) of the I-T Act by 31 March 2026 for processing their income tax returns.
Once, the returns are processed, the Income Tax Dept. will issue the refund with interest if it is applicable.
Here, taxpayers have to take a note if the taxpayer’s PAN card is not linked with their Aadhaar number, then no amount of full or partial refunds will be issued.
The same is confirmed in the Income Tax Department’s statement, “In those cases where PAN-Aadhaar linkage is not found, refund of any amount of tax or part thereof, due under the provisions of the Act shall not be made.”
In the meantime, the Indian taxpayers are now preparing themselves to file their income tax returns for the Financial Year 2024-25, i.e., assessment year 2025-26.
Please note that the Income Tax Department has extended the filing deadline to 15 September 2025.
