New Delhi, Jan 28 (IANS): A man complained to Income Tax Department for the delay in receiving refund for the ITR filed by him seven months ago, but he got a reply from the Ministry of Railways which asked him to share his PNR number with them.

It all started after the man wrote a post on Twitter complaining to Income Tax Department for the delay in receiving refund for the ITR filed by him seven months ago. He tagged Union Minister Piyush Goyal in his tweets and wrote, "I'm still waiting 2 receive my refund, it has been 7 months now. I called customer care officials but they keep saying to process soon. Unbelievable. @PiyushGoyal sir you said that ITR would be processing very fast but i m waiting for 7 months for my refund. Please see this tweet thread."

On his query, instead of the I-T Department, the Railways Ministry replied, "Kindly share PNR no and mobile no through Direct Message."

The reply by chat bots on the post amused the Twitterati who had a field day.

A user commented, "Its not promptness, rather a bot controlling tweets. Since Mr Goyal was mentioned in the tweet, the bot read it and started responding to it with a canned response."

Another wrote, "IRCTC is the new Income tax office."

A post read, "Income tax me PNR ki kya jarurat bhai, dekhke reply kiya karo."

A Tweeple remarked, "Dear Railways...Thanks for your promptness but he is demanding Refund due for Income tax return filed. Hope @IncomeTaxIndia takes cognizance."