Income tax refund delay: What to do if your ITR shows ‘processed’ but refund not received

Income tax return (ITR) refunds delay: The deadline to file ITR for AY 2025-26 closed on September 16 last month after the Income Tax Department refused to give any further extension in the due date, despite taxpayers complaining of technical issues and other difficulties.

At the close of the deadline on September 16, the Income Tax Department’s website showed that over 7.53 crore ITRs were filed and over 4 crore returns were processed. Since then, around 15 lakh more ITRs have been filed. As of September 5, 7.68 crore returns have been filed and around 6.11 crore ITRs have been processed by the tax department. Meanwhile, there have been several complaints on social media from taxpayers, stating that they can see their ITR status as “processed” on the e-filing portal, but they have not