Refund failed or not credited? How to raise a Refund Reissue request on the e-filing portal

You filed your return on time, the intimation under Section 143(1) confirmed a refund was due, and yet weeks later your bank account shows nothing. This is one of the most common post-filing problems Indian taxpayers face: a refund that the Income Tax Department has sanctioned but which never lands. The good news is that a failed refund is almost never lost - it simply needs to be reissued once you fix the reason it bounced. This guide walks through exactly how to raise a Refund Reissue request on the e-filing portal, what the Income-tax Act 1961 says about your right to that money, and how interest under Section 244A adds up while you wait.

The Scenario

Consider Priya, a salaried professional in Pune. Her employer deducted Rs 1,20,000 as TDS under Section 192 during FY 2024-25, but her actual liability worked out to Rs 96,000 after claiming deductions. She filed her ITR for Assessment Year 2025-26, and the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) at Bengaluru issued an intimation under Section 143(1) confirming a refund of Rs 24,000. Three weeks passed and the money never arrived. When she logged in to check, the refund status read "Refund Failure - account not pre-validated".

This is a textbook reason for a bounced refund. Since 2019 the Income Tax Department credits refunds only to a bank account that has been electronically pre-validated on the portal and linked to your PAN. A second, increasingly common cause is an inoperative PAN: if your PAN is not linked to Aadhaar under Section 139AA, Rule 114AAA freezes your refund entirely until the linkage is restored. Other frequent triggers include a closed account, an IFSC code that changed after a bank merger, or a name mismatch between your PAN and your bank records. In every one of these cases the remedy is the same statutory tool - a Refund Reissue request. You are not re-applying for the refund; the sanction already exists. You are only correcting the payment rail.

Statutory Answer

Your entitlement to a refund flows from Chapter XIX of the Income-tax Act 1961. Section 237 states that any person who has paid tax in excess of the amount properly chargeable is entitled to a refund of the excess. Once the CPC processes your return under Section 143(1), that excess is quantified and a refund is sanctioned - but sanction and disbursal are two separate events, which is precisely why a failed credit does not extinguish your claim.

The mechanics of receiving the money are governed by the e-filing portal's Refund Reissue service, documented in the Income Tax Department's user manual. A refund can only be paid into a bank account that satisfies two conditions: the account must be pre-validated on the portal, and the PAN attached to that account must be operative. Rule 114AAA of the Income-tax Rules is explicit that where a PAN has become inoperative for want of Aadhaar linkage, the consequence is that any refund due "shall not be made" and no interest shall be payable on such refund for the period the PAN remains inoperative. The linkage itself is mandated by Section 139AA, and a late linkage attracts a fee of up to Rs 1,000 under Section 234H.

Crucially, the law also protects the time-value of your money. Section 244A(1) provides simple interest at the rate of one-half per cent (0.5%) for every month or part of a month - that is 6% per annum - on refunds arising out of TDS, TCS, or advance tax. For such refunds the interest runs from 1 April of the assessment year up to the date the refund is granted. Two carve-outs matter: under the proviso to Section 244A(1), no interest is payable if the refund amount is less than 10% of the tax determined under Section 143(1) or on regular assessment; and under Section 244A(2), any period of delay attributable to the taxpayer is excluded from the interest computation. This second rule is the sting in the tail of a failed refund - if the credit bounced because you never pre-validated your account, the department can treat the resulting delay as attributable to you.

Worked Resolution

Return to Priya's Rs 24,000 refund for AY 2025-26. Her tax determined under Section 143(1) was Rs 96,000, so her refund of Rs 24,000 equals 25% of the tax - comfortably above the 10% threshold in the proviso to Section 244A(1). Interest is therefore payable. The table below shows how the interest accrues at 0.5% per month from 1 April 2025.

Now the practical fix. Once Priya pre-validates a working bank account, she raises the reissue in six steps on the portal. Failure reasons and their corrective actions map cleanly, as the next table shows.

The reissue journey itself follows a single path on the portal. Log in to the e-Filing portal at incometax.gov.in, then go to Dashboard, then Services, then Refund Reissue. Click "Create Refund Reissue Request", select the assessment year and the intimation for which the refund failed, and then choose a bank account that is already pre-validated and EVC-enabled. If no such account is listed, add one first under My Bank Accounts and complete pre-validation - the bank confirms your PAN, name, and account number electronically, usually within a day. Finally, verify the request using Aadhaar OTP, Electronic Verification Code (EVC), or a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC). Once submitted, the request moves to the CPC for processing, and the State Bank of India, as the refund banker, credits the validated account.

Before you file the request, it is worth confirming that the numbers on your intimation are correct in the first place. Run your figures through the income tax calculator to confirm your liability, cross-check every rupee of tax credit against your Form 26AS and the Annual Information Statement, and use the TDS calculator if you suspect your employer under- or over-deducted under Section 192. If you are still weighing which regime minimised your tax, the old vs new regime comparison shows where the Rs 60,000 rebate under Section 87A (available in the new regime for income up to Rs 12,00,000 in FY 2025-26) changes the maths. Getting the underlying tax refund figure right first means your reissue request sails through rather than bouncing a second time.

FAQ

How long does a refund reissue take once I submit the request?

After you submit a valid Refund Reissue request with a pre-validated account, the CPC typically reprocesses and credits the refund within a few weeks. There is no fixed statutory deadline for reissue, but interest under Section 244A continues to accrue at 0.5% per month until the date the refund is actually granted, subject to the exclusion in Section 244A(2) for delays attributable to you. Track progress under Services, then Know Your Refund Status on the portal.

My PAN became inoperative - will I still get interest on the held-up refund?

No. Rule 114AAA is explicit that while your PAN is inoperative for want of Aadhaar linkage under Section 139AA, the refund shall not be made and no interest shall be payable for the period the PAN remains inoperative. You must first link PAN with Aadhaar, paying the Rs 1,000 fee under Section 234H, after which the refund becomes payable again. Interest resumes only for the period after your PAN is operative.

Do I need to file a fresh ITR to get a failed refund reissued?

No. A Refund Reissue request is entirely separate from filing a return. The refund was already sanctioned when the CPC processed your original ITR under Section 143(1); the reissue only corrects the bank-credit failure. Filing a fresh or revised return is required only if the refund figure itself was wrong, not because the payment bounced.

What is the minimum refund below which no interest is paid?

Under the proviso to Section 244A(1), no interest is payable if the refund is less than 10% of the tax determined under Section 143(1) or on regular assessment. So on a tax determination of Rs 96,000, a refund below Rs 9,600 would carry no interest, while Priya's Rs 24,000 (25% of the tax) qualifies for the full 0.5%-per-month interest.

How do I pre-validate my bank account for the refund?

On the e-filing portal, go to Profile, then My Bank Accounts, then Add Bank Account. Enter your account number, IFSC, and account type; the portal sends the details to your bank for electronic validation of your PAN and name. Validation usually completes within one working day, after which the account can be nominated for refunds and enabled for EVC. Only a validated account appears in the Refund Reissue dropdown.

Can I change the bank account for a refund that already failed?

Yes. That is the entire purpose of the Refund Reissue service - you select a different, pre-validated account when raising the request. If your original account was closed or its IFSC changed after a bank merger, add a new active account under My Bank Accounts, complete pre-validation, and then choose it while creating the reissue request.

Where can I check why my refund failed?

Log in to the portal and open Services, then Know Your Refund Status, or view the pending action on your Dashboard. The status message states the reason - "account not pre-validated", "PAN inoperative", "account closed", or a name mismatch. Match that reason to the corrective action, fix it, and only then raise the Refund Reissue request so it does not bounce again. If a defective-return notice is also pending, resolve that first, since an unresolved Section 139(9) notice can hold up processing entirely.