The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has allowed processing of income tax refund claims in non-scrutiny cases for assessment years up to 2017-18 till October 31, 2020, instead of the earlier date of December 2019, allowing clearing up of old refunds cases.

“All validly filed returns up to assessment year 2017-18 with refund claims, which could not be processed under Section 143(1) and which have become time-barred, subject to exceptions, can now be processed with prior administrative approval of Pr CCIT/ CCIT concerned and intimation of such processing can be sent to the assessee concerned by October 31, 2020,” the Board said in the order.

The main objective of the Board to give such re-opening of the relaxation window was to prevent genuine hardships for taxpayers and address their pending grievances, in an order issued on Friday, since many taxpayers were not able to claim the past refunds due to some technical glitch or other issues.

The exceptions include returns that are under scrutiny, where returns remained unprocessed either demand is shown as payable in the return or is likely to arise after processing it and returns remain unprocessed for any reason attributable to the assessee.

The earlier window was opened from the end of the financial year to be filed until December 2019. Experts said that the move will help provide required liquidity during ongoing tough times.