No special drive to reopen cases with mismatch in HRA claims: CBDT refutes media reports

The department said it has found mismatch between rent paid by the salaried employees vis-a-vis rent received by the recipient for 2020-21 fiscal year and conducted data analysis for high-value cases. But the routine exercise of verification of rent paid and received was done in a “small number” of cases, as per the statement.

“Data analysis was carried out in some high-value cases of mismatch between the rent paid by the employee and receipt of rent by the recipient for the FY 2020-21. This verification was done in a small number of cases without re-opening bulk of cases, especially since Updated Return for FY 2020-21(AY 2021-22) could have been filed by the taxpayers concerned only till 31.03.2024,” the statement read.

In such cases with issues of mismatch in HRA claims, the department has alerted the taxpayers to enable them to take corrective action.

The statement also highlighted the objective of the e-verification which was to alert cases of mismatches of information for FY21 only without affecting others.

HRA forms part of salary income, or CTC, and is calculated in taxable income. However, if an employee lives in a rented accommodation, they can claim income tax exemption for HRA received during the fiscal year. They can do so by submitting valid rent receipts.

It is to be noted that the tax exemption is not available in case taxpayers opt for the new tax regime, which doesn’t have such exemptions.

— With PTI inputs

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