Section 119 of Income Tax Act

CBDT has empowered to accept an application for claim or refund if it considers it to be genuine in such procedure, tile limit, and conditions which shall be discussed in this article.

As per the provisions of Section 119 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 Central Board of Direct Taxes is empowered to issue such orders, instructions and directions as it may deem fit for the proper administration of this Act, to other income-tax authorities (subordinate authorities) which supersedes all earlier orders, instructions, notices, circulars.

Section 119(2)(b) 

As per the provisions of section 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax act, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) by way of general or special order shall authorize Income-tax authority other than a commissioner (Appeals) to accept an application or claim for any deduction, exemption, refund or any other relief under the Income Tax Act even after the expiry of the period stated by or under this Act for making such application or claim and deal with the same on merits in accordance with law.

Provided such an application or claim within the specified period or due date was genuinely out of control of the Taxpayer.

Authority authorized to Accept or Reject Applications

CBDT has issued a circular 9/2015 dated 09/06/2015 containing comprehensive guidelines on the conditions and procedure to be followed for making an application to claim the refund and carry forward of losses and set-off thereof u/s 119(2)(b) of the Income-tax Act.

CBDT has specified a monetary limit of claim amount in circular based on which the authority is authorized to accept or reject the application. Following are the authorities authorized to accept or reject applications:

Authorized Authority	Monetary Limit of Claim Amount
The Principal Commissioners of Income Tax/ Commissioners of Income Tax (Pr.CITs/CITs)	In case the claim amount is not more than Rs.10 lakhs for any one assessment year.
The Principal Chief Commissioners of Income Tax/ Chief Commissioners of Income Tax (Pr.CCITs/CCITs)	In case the amount of such claims exceeds Rs.10 lakhs but is not more than Rs. 50 lakhs for any one assessment year.
Central Board of Taxes(CBDT)	In case the amount of claim exceeds Rs.50 Lakhs.

Time Limit Specified for Accepting Claims

The Condonation Application under section 119(2)(b) for accepting or rejecting the claim of loss or refund has to be filed within 6 years from the end of Assessment year for which such an application or claim is made. The prescribed time limit is also applicable to all aforesaid authorized authorities having the power to condone the delay as per the above prescribed monetary limits, including the Board. 

The competent authority receiving such condonation application should dispose of the same either by accepting or rejecting it in a period of six months from the end of the month in which they received the application.

However in case, any refund claim has raised inconsequent to the court order, such proceeding period pending before any court of law shall be ignored. Provided that such condonation application shall be filed within six months from the end of the month in which the Court order was issued or the end of financial year whichever is later.

Procedure to file Return U/s 119(2)(b)

One receiving the order of acceptance of claim applied, the Taxpayer can file return u/s 119(2)(b) from income tax e-filing website by following the below steps :

• Visit the official website of the Income Tax portal at the income tax e-filing portal and log in using valid user-id credentials.
• After login Go to the “e-file” tab and select “Income tax returns” from the drop-down list.
• Select the assessment year and ITR for which the return has to be filed under this section.
• After Selecting, choose the type of filing as “Filing against notice/order”.
• And then Select the filing section as “139 read with section 119(2)(b)”
• After successfully providing the above details, upload an XML and file the return by verifying the same.

Points to be Noted

The Condonation application for refund or claim shall be admitted only on satisfying the below-stated conditions:

• The Income of the Assessee shall not be admitted in the hands of any other person under the Income Tax act.
• No Interest shall be paid on such belated claim of Refunds.
• The Refund claim has arisen only because of excess tax deducted or collected at source and or excess advance tax payment and or excess payment of self-assessment tax as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act.