- Several ITRs for various assessment years upto A.Y. 2017-18 which were otherwise filed validly under section-139 or 142 or 119 of the Income tax Act, 1961 could not be processed. Due to this, intimation regarding processing of such returns could not be sent within the period of one year from the end of the financial year in which such returns were filed.
- This has led to a situation where the taxpayer is unable to get his legitimate refund although the delay is not attributable to him.To reslove the grievances of such taxpayers, CBDT had earlier issued instructions/orders u/s 119 of the Act from time to time relaxing the prescribed statutory limit for processing of such validly filed returns with refund claims in non-scrutiny cases. As per the latest order dated 05th August, 2019, time frame was given till 31.12.2019 to process such returns with refund claims.
- The matter has been re-considered by Board in view of pending taxpayer's grievances related to issue of refund. To mitigate hardship being faced by the taxpayers on this issue, Board, by virtue of its powers under section 119 of the Act, hereby relaxes the timeframe prescribed in second proviso to sub-section (1) of section-143 and directs that all validly filed returns up to A.Y. 2017-18 with refund claims, which could not be processed under sub-section (1) of section 143 of the Act and which have become time-barred, can be processed now with prior administrative approval of Pr.CCIT/CI\CIT concerned and intimation of such processing under sub-section (1) of section-143 of the Act can be sent to the assessee concerned by 31.10.2020.
- All subsequent effects under the Act including issue of refund shall also follow as per the prescribed procedures.
- The relaxation accorded above shall not be applicable to the following returns:-
(a) Returns selected in scrutiny
(b) Returns remaining unprocessed, whether either demand is shown as payable in the return or is likely to arise after processing it
(c) Returns remaining unprocessed for any reason attributable to the assessee.
