In order to claim your refund, you must ensure to pre-validate your bank account. In case you have not received your tax refund make sure to prevalidate your account

From this year onwards, the income tax department has tweaked the process of claiming an income tax refund. In order to claim your refund, you must ensure to pre-validate your bank account. This account should be one in which you wish to receive the income tax refund.

It may be noted that the income tax department had announced that it will issue only e-refunds from March 1, 2019. These refunds will be credited only to those bank accounts which are PAN and are pre-validated on the income tax e-filing website, www.incometaxefiling.gov.in.

One can check his or her income tax refund status either by income tax e-filling portal or through the NSDL website. The refund by the tax department is credited directly to the taxpayers' bank account through RTGS or NECS method. It may be noted that the process of issuing refunds through cheques has been discontinued.

1SectionHere is how to pre-validate your bank account-STEP 1Visit income tax website
Go to income tax website, www.incometaxefiling.gov.in and log in to your account.

STEP 2Enter your details
Enter your PAN, password and captcha to log in. It may be noted that user ID to login to the account would be your PAN.

STEP 3click on 'prevalidate your bank account'
After you log in, click on the 'profile settings' tab in your account and then click the drop-down list. Click on the 'prevalidate your bank account' option and proceed

STEP 4In case account is not prevalidated
If any of your bank accounts is pre-validated then you can view on the screen. In case your account is not pre-validated or you want to receive the refund in a different bank account, then click 'Add'.

STEP 5Provide your details
On the page opened, enter your bank account number, account type, IFSC, bank name, bank branch, mobile number and email ID. It may be noted that both your mobile number and email ID must match with your bank records.

STEP 6Click on 'Prevalidate' button
In the last step click on the 'Prevalidate' button. A message will appear saying "Your request for pre-validating bank account is submitted. Status of your request will be sent to your registered email ID and mobile number."