Your Taxes

I am a senior citizen. I filed my returns for AY-2015-2016 within the stipulated time. A sum of ₹16,000-odd is due to me as refund. But unfortunately, I have not received the refund so far.

I submitted my grievance over the delay in the tax department’s website. But I haven’t heard from them yet. What should I do ?

N Kalyanasundaram

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) issued an internal instruction in December 2015 to the Central Processing Centre (CPC) Bengaluru and field officers, to issue refunds of amounts less than ₹50,000 expeditiously. These refunds were issued during the period December 1, 2015 to  January 10, 2016 and related to assessment years 2013-14 to 2015-16. Based on this, your refund claim should have been processed by now.

However, since you have indicated that you have not yet received your refund, you could initially approach your jurisdictional tax officer to understand the reason for the delay. During the meeting, you could refer to the above instruction from CBDT and submit a letter requesting for issue of refund without any further delay. 

If you don’t receive the refund despite this, you can take it up with the immediate higher authority and further with the concerned Commissioner of Income Tax. 

If you do not receive your refund even after all these escalations, you could contact the office of the ombudsman, located in select cities across India. 

A letter is to be submitted along with all the relevant income proof/ documents supporting the claim. 

Further, a copy of the requests filed with the jurisdictional tax officer/Commissioner is also to be enclosed in support of the efforts taken to obtain the refund.

Based on the documentation provided and the prevailing tax laws, the ombudsman would pass a decision called an award, which is to be abided by the income tax authorities. 

Can exemption from capital gains arising out of selling residential flats be obtained by investing the sale proceeds in Rural Electrification Corporation bonds?

What are the applicable rules and time limits?

Sarada Devi

 According to Section 54EC of the Income Tax Act, 1961, investing long-term capital gains (up to ₹50 lakh) in specified bonds issued by the National Highways Authority of India or Rural Electrification Corporation would enable a tax payer to get exemption for such gains. 

For this purpose, a capital asset is deemed to be long term in nature if it is held for a period exceeding 36 months. Hence, if you satisfy the above conditions, you could get the exemption. However, these bonds have a lock in period of three years.

If you either transfer or convert these assets into money anytime within three years of purchasing them, the capital gains which were earlier exempted would be deemed to be taxable income for the year of transfer/conversion.

The writer is Partner, Deloitte, Haskins and Sells LLP. Mail your queries to taxtalk@thehindu.co.in

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