The last date for filing the income tax return (ITR Filing) was July 31, and now people are waiting for their refund. Some people have already received their ITR refund, while many are still waiting. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week said in the Parliament that in the last 10 years, the average time taken to process income tax refund has reduced rapidly/drastically. 

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She said that in the Financial Year 2013-14, it took an average time frame of 93 days to process and issue refunds. She said that in the Financial Year 2023-24, many people are getting their refunds in an average time frame of 10 days. Another big question that arises amongst taxpayers is: does the income tax refund get processed in just 10 days?.

While it is written on the Income Tax Department's (I-T Department) website that it mostly takes 4-5 weeks. It is evident that in some cases, refund time has reduced drastically. If the I-T Department faces more discrepancies in an ITR form, the ITR form processing takes more time. Therefore, not everyone receives their refunds on time. 

Another important thing to be noted is that ITR-2 is more difficult than ITR-1, and there are more problems in ITR-3 than in ITR-2. Therefore, in such a situation, the ITR processing time will keep increasing according to problems. Who gets the refund first? According to the former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Ramakrishna Srinivasan, income tax refunds of ITR-1 are processed first

After that comes ITR-2 and then ITR-3. The hierarchy of refunds is such that, as the ITR form becomes more difficult, the refund is also processed in the same way. However, if an individual has filed ITR on the last date or very close to it, then that individual may also face a delay in getting a refund. Individuals, therefore, must keep this in mind before filing income tax returns. Refunds of ITR-2 and ITR-3, which do not have any defect or problem, may take up to a few months to reach people