Are you clueless about tracking your income-tax refund claims? With the income-tax department adapting online processing, refund status can be easily ascertained over the internet with a few simple steps by entering your PAN number.

The ‘Refund Banker Scheme’, first introduced by the income-tax department in January 2007, can be accessed online by tax payers at https://tin.tin.n-sdl.com/oltas/refundstatuslogin to view the exact status of their refunds. All one needs to do is to enter the PAN number and the assessment year on this site.

Modes of Refund
Tax refunds whenever applicable are made in two different means to all tax payers:
RTGS/NECS: To enable direct credit of the refund amount to the bank account of the tax payer, his/her bank account, MICR/ IFSC code of the bank branch and address is mandatory.

Cheque: The standard paper cheques wherever issued require the current bank account number and the correct address of the tax payer as mandatory information.

Checking status online
You have three options for checking the status — through online, telebanking or by email.

* Go to https://tin.tin.-nsdl.com/oltas/refundstatuslogin and enter your PAN and assessment year. Then click on the submit button.

* Dial SBI’s toll-free number at 1800-4259-760 send an email to itro@sbi.co.in or refunds-@incometaxindia.gov.in

It must be noted that the online refund enquiry is faster if the return was filed on time and preferably through the online filing system.

Different status
While checking your refund status online, you are likely to see several kinds of status messages on the website. Below are some of the common status messages that may appear.

Other status messages, depending upon the actual state of processing and disparities noticed by the income-tax department, may also appear. The assessee has the right to appeal and notify the department in case of discrepancies noticed regarding the status on the website for further action.
Change of address:

If the address of the assessee has been changed but it has not been notified to the income-tax department, the refund cheque is normally returned to the department. This is reflected in the status on the website. Such cases are common despite the fact that the refund cheques are dispatched on time by the department.

Cheque encashed status:
If the assessee has received the refund cheque and has encashed it then the status at the website will reflect the same.

However, in case the cheque has actually not been encashed but is being reflected as so at the website then one needs to immediately inform the department and take steps to retrieve the money at the earliest.

Some important rules
There are a few essential facts that one needs to understand while checking tax refund status online:

* The I-T department has nominated State Bank of India as the refund manger for all such transactions. Thus, it is the SBI that forwards all the refund cheques or online transfers.

* RTGS/NECS/ECS transfers are possible only if the 10-digit bank account number has been correctly provided by the tax payer along with the IFSC code. Otherwise, standard cheques or demand drafts will be dispatched to the address provided by the assessee.

* The online status is updated only after a period of 10 days of the assessing officer having made the refund either online or by dispatching the cheque.

* The refund status will be displayed only if the tax return has been filed correctly on time and has been received by the department. The assessee should ensure that he or she has received an acknowledgement form from the department of having received the ITR.

* Using the department’s online facilities is a great relief, both in terms of filing the returns and checking the status of refunds. The processing time for online e-filing vis-a-vis the traditional paper form filing is considerably less.

(The writer is the CEO of bankbazaar.com)