An order issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, as F. No. 225/132/2023/ITA-II, dated 1 March 2024. Issued under section 119.
An order of the Board under section 119 relaxing the time limit in the second proviso to section 143(1) so that electronically filed returns for assessment year 2021-22 carrying refund claims, which the department failed to process before the date for sending an intimation lapsed, may still be processed. It is one of a series of such orders, each covering a further set of assessment years, and it exists to release refunds that would otherwise have been lost to a departmental delay.
This is an order of the Board. An order is issued under a power the Act itself gives the Board — most often section 119, which lets it direct its own officers and, in the cases the section names, relax a requirement. Read the enabling words before deciding how far it reaches: the power is administrative, and it cannot rewrite the charge.
The Board relaxes the time-frame in the second proviso to section 143(1) and directs that all returns of income validly filed electronically for assessment year 2021-22 with refund claims, where the date for sending an intimation under section 143(1) has lapsed, may now be processed with the prior administrative approval of the Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner concerned. The intimation of such processing must be sent to the assessee by 30.04.2024. Three classes of return are kept out: returns selected in scrutiny; returns left unprocessed where a demand is shown as payable in the return or is likely to arise on processing; and returns left unprocessed for any reason attributable to the assessee. The DGIT (Systems) is to enable the cases individually for the assessing officers, and the Principal Commissioners are to monitor the disposal.
A large number of validly filed returns for assessment year 2021-22 were never processed within the statutory period, in most cases for technical reasons on the department's side, and the assessees were left holding a refund claim that had gone time-barred through no fault of theirs. Grievances on refunds had accumulated. Section 119 lets the Board relax the section 143(1) limitation to relieve genuine hardship, and this order does exactly that for one assessment year.
The order binds the department and the Principal Chief Commissioners who must approve each case. It does not oblige an assessee to do anything and does not by itself entitle him to a refund; it removes a bar that stood in the department's way. It binds neither the Tribunal nor a court, though an assessee whose case falls squarely within it may press the department to act on it.
Issued 1st March, 2024 for assessment year 2021-22. The intimation under section 143(1) had to be sent by 30.04.2024.
The three exclusions do the real work. A return showing a payable demand, or one likely to throw up a demand on processing, is outside the relaxation altogether, as is a return held up for a reason attributable to the assessee. Prior approval of the Principal Chief Commissioner is a condition, not a formality. The 30.04.2024 date has passed, so a case not taken up by then needs a later order to rest on.
Board, by virtue of its powers under section 119 of the Act, hereby relaxes the time-frame prescribed in second proviso to sub-section (1) of section 143
— the Central Board of Direct Taxes, order F. No. 225/132/2023/ITA-II, 1 March 2024. Read it in the department’s own PDF.
| Under the Income-tax Act, 1961 | Now, in the Income-tax Act, 2025 |
|---|---|
| section 143 | section 270 |
| section 119 | section 239 |
We charge fees for our public utility work. Does that cost us charitable status under s.2(15)?
Is a notice under s.143(2) a jurisdictional precondition, or merely a procedural step the Assessing Officer can skip?
My return was only processed under 143(1). Does that stop the department reopening it later?
The Income-tax Officer examined witnesses behind my back and used their statements against me. Is that material evidence at all?
No s.143(2) notice was issued at all. Does s.292BB save the assessment?
The company I represent amalgamated years ago, the department knew about it, and the assessment order still came in the old company's name. Is that order void, or can the department call it a curable slip?
What here is the Board’s and what is ours. The document is the Central Board of Direct Taxes’ own. Its number, its date and the words quoted above are reproduced from the Board’s own PDF, which is here. Everything else on this page is ours: the plain-English account of what the document is and what it does, the reading of which provision it turns on, the note on what to watch, and the choice of cases. Where our account and the document part, the document governs.
An order of the Board binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board writes to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to an order or an instruction that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves. This is the most common mistake made with this material, and it is worth making twice: a direction of the Board is not a section of the Act.
What we could not settle. The file number was read from an imperfect text layer.