Even as income-tax payers grapple with non-acceptance of their returns, its surely not a good time to expect refunds. 

Refunds across the country will be enormously delayed as the software at the new Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) of the I-T department is yet to be rid of bugs. The net result is that processing tax returns and refunds of the assessment year 2008-09 may not be completed before March 2010.

Though the software is in place, the system is yet to get on to a complete working module. Its in the nascent stage and once the software gets on track, itll speed up the process. The software will be fully operational by next year. Tax returns with errors are being returned. With delay in processing of returns, itll impact refunds too, explained IT officials.

After filing returns online, a tax payer/CA/tax consultant will have to download the acknowledgement and send it to CPC through ordinary post. We have been returning acknowledgements sent through couriers and SpeedPosts to the assesses. Were also rejecting printouts of low quality where details cannot be read and information is wrong, officials added.