How to raise an income-tax grievance on the e-filing portal when CPC or your AO won't respond

The Scenario

You filed your return for Assessment Year 2026-27 on 15 July 2026, the Centralised Processing Centre accepted it in an intimation under Section 143(1), and that intimation showed a refund of Rs 22,100 as determined. Ten weeks on, by 16 September 2026, the money has not reached your bank account, the refund status has not moved, and two calls to 1800 103 0025 have produced a reference number and nothing else.

Or the facts run the other way: your refund was set off against a demand for AY 2021-22 you have never seen, and the jurisdictional Assessing Officer has not answered the letter you filed in June 2026. Either way you are holding a Section 143(1) intimation you cannot enforce by telephone.

The department's answer to precisely this deadlock is the grievance module on the e-filing portal, reached from the Grievances menu and its Submit Grievance option. It is deliberately low-friction. Per the department's own FAQ, grievances can be raised against four departments — e-Filing, AO, CPC-TDS and CPC-ITR; you can file one even if you are not registered on the e-filing portal; e-verification is not mandatory to submit it; and status can be tracked both pre-login and post-login. Those four facts remove most of the usual reasons for not raising one.

Statutory Answer

The grievance module is an administrative facility rather than the creature of any single section. Its force comes from the statutory clocks behind whatever you are complaining about, and a grievance that names those clocks is a different document from one asking the officer to kindly look into the matter. Three provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 carry most refund and notice grievances.

Section 154(8) — six months to dispose of a rectification. Where an application for amendment is made by the assessee to an income-tax authority, that authority "shall pass an order, within a period of six months from the end of the month in which the application is received by it", either making the amendment or refusing to allow the claim. A rectification filed on 12 May 2026 therefore falls due for disposal by 30 November 2026. Section 154(7) separately bars any amendment after four years from the end of the financial year in which the order sought to be amended was passed, so the taxpayer's own window is finite too. The mechanics of filing one are set out in our guide to fixing a mistake in a 143(1) intimation.

Section 245 — no silent set-off. Where a refund is found to be due, the authority may set it off against a sum remaining payable "after giving an intimation in writing to such person of the action proposed to be taken under this section". A refund that disappeared into a 2021-22 demand without that written intimation is a specific statutory defect you can plead in the grievance, not a grumble. Our walkthrough of a refund adjusted against an old demand covers the 30-day response mechanics.

Section 244A(1)(a) — delay carries a price. Where the refund arises out of tax treated as paid under Section 199, that is, ordinary TDS, or out of advance tax, simple interest runs at one-half per cent for every month or part of a month from the 1st day of April of the assessment year to the date the refund is granted. The proviso withholds that interest only where the refund is less than ten per cent of the tax determined under Section 143(1) or on regular assessment. Quantifying this figure inside the grievance converts an open-ended wait into a number the department is accruing.

Worked Resolution

Take a salaried reader with gross salary of Rs 14,00,000 for FY 2025-26 under the new regime, whose employer deducted Rs 1,04,000 of TDS across the year. The refund is the gap between the two columns below.

No rebate under Section 87A arises here because taxable income of Rs 13,25,000 exceeds the Rs 12,00,000 threshold; at or below that threshold the new-regime rebate for FY 2025-26 runs up to Rs 60,000. You can reproduce every line with the income tax calculator, test the regime choice on the old versus new regime calculator, and check the deduction itself against the TDS calculator. The credit you are claiming must appear in Form 26AS before CPC will release the tax refund.

Now price the delay. Rs 22,100 is about 27 per cent of the Rs 81,900 tax determined, comfortably clear of the ten per cent floor in the proviso to Section 244A(1), so interest is payable. Running at one-half per cent a month from 1 April 2026, a refund granted on 30 September 2026 carries six months of interest: Rs 22,100 x 0.5% x 6 = Rs 663. That figure, stated in the grievance with its dates, is the difference between a complaint and a claim.

The filing sequence itself takes about ten minutes.

1. Go to the e-filing portal, then Dashboard > Grievances > Submit Grievance. Unregistered users can file the same grievance without logging in.
2. Select the department from the four available: e-Filing, AO, CPC-TDS or CPC-ITR.
3. Select Category, Applicable Act and Subcategory from the dropdowns, then Continue.
4. Enter the Assessment Year — 2026-27 in this example. Check the assessment year before you type, because a grievance tagged to FY 2025-26 as though it were an assessment year is routed to the wrong processing batch.
5. Write the description. The portal requires a minimum of 100 characters, so spend them on facts: date of filing (15 July 2026), date of the Section 143(1) intimation, refund determined (Rs 22,100), the section relied on (244A(1)(a)), interest accrued (Rs 663 to 30 September 2026), and bank-account validation status.
6. Upload supporting documents. Attachments are not mandatory, but the intimation and a Form 26AS extract shorten the round trip.
7. Submit, then record the Grievance Acknowledgement Number. It is the only handle you have on the matter afterwards.

Tracking works either way round. Pre-login, use Contact Us > View Grievance with the acknowledgement number and the registered mobile number. Post-login, Dashboard > Grievances > View Grievance Status filters by date, department and status.

Choosing the Right Department and Category

The four departments are not interchangeable, and a grievance lodged with the wrong one is routed, not resolved. A refund already determined in a Section 143(1) intimation sits with CPC-ITR. A refund withheld or adjusted by the jurisdictional officer sits with AO. A credit missing from Form 26AS because the deductor filed badly sits with CPC-TDS.

One consequence: a single fact pattern can need two grievances. If the 15 July 2026 return claimed Rs 1,04,000 of TDS but Form 26AS shows only Rs 92,000 because a quarter was filed late by the deductor, the Rs 12,000 shortfall is a CPC-TDS matter while the unpaid Rs 22,100 refund is a CPC-ITR matter. File both, each with its own acknowledgement number.

Escalating When the Grievance Itself Stalls

Grievances are not the only channel, and running them alongside the published helplines costs nothing. The four below are the department's own, with its stated working hours.

By e-mail, the department lists ITR.helpdesk@incometax.gov.in for ITR-1 to ITR-7 queries, taxdemand@cpc.incometax.gov.in for demand matters, epay.helpdesk@incometax.gov.in for the e-Pay Tax service and efilingwebmanager@incometax.gov.in for everything else. Quote the Grievance Acknowledgement Number in the subject line so the two threads join up.

Where the grievance itself goes quiet, the statutory route reopens. If the underlying application was a rectification, Section 154(8) puts a hard six-month outer limit on disposal, measured from the end of the month of receipt, and that date is worth stating in every follow-up. If a refund was adjusted, Section 245 requires the written intimation to have come first. And throughout, Section 244A(1)(a) keeps adding one-half per cent a month from 1 April of the assessment year, which is the department's own measure of what the delay is worth.

FAQ

Do I need to be registered on the e-filing portal to raise a grievance?

No. The department's FAQ states that you can file a grievance if you are not registered on the e-filing portal, and that grievance status can be checked both pre-login and post-login using the acknowledgement number and registered mobile number.

Is e-verification required before a grievance is accepted?

No. Unlike a return, which must be verified, the department confirms that you do not need to e-verify a grievance for it to be submitted. The Grievance Acknowledgement Number is generated on submission.

Which of the four departments should I choose?

e-Filing for portal, password, form and e-verification problems; CPC-ITR for processing, ITR-V, refund and demand issues arising after filing; AO for the jurisdictional officer's own demand, refund, rectification or appeal actions; CPC-TDS for Form 26AS, challan, KYC and deductor-default issues.

How long does the department have to decide my rectification?

Where the grievance relates to a rectification application under Section 154, sub-section (8) requires the authority to pass an order within six months from the end of the month in which the application is received, either making the amendment or refusing the claim. A rectification received on 12 May 2026 is due for disposal by 30 November 2026.

Can my refund be adjusted against an old demand while the grievance is pending?

Section 245 permits set-off against a sum remaining payable only after giving an intimation in writing of the action proposed. If no such written intimation reached you, say so expressly in the grievance and quote the demand's assessment year.

Do I get interest for the months my refund was stuck?

Yes, subject to the threshold. Section 244A(1)(a) gives simple interest at one-half per cent for every month or part of a month from 1 April of the assessment year to the date the refund is granted, unless the refund is less than ten per cent of the tax determined under Section 143(1) or on regular assessment. On the Rs 22,100 refund above, six months to 30 September 2026 works out to Rs 663.

What should the 100-character description actually say?

Dates and figures, not adjectives: return filed 15 July 2026 for AY 2026-27, Section 143(1) intimation determined a refund of Rs 22,100, refund not credited as at 16 September 2026, interest claimed under Section 244A(1)(a), bank account pre-validated.