Does Chapter VI-A deductions apply only to salaried people?

Sorry Dhruva. I think it's awaiting moderator approval. I've sent the screenshot to the email id you provided. I'm also going to try and re-upload the pic inline too.

There seem to be a lot of bugs with this forum. One was with the attachment. Another is that when I click your profile link, it takes me to somebody else's profile.

Its only precautionary warning.

No need to worry, if you have invested Rs. 1,50,000/- under any sec. 80C eligible scheme, during the year.

@ Dhirajlal: Although you are right that it was a precautionary warning, and although I could click the "add" button and get the amount added, it still shows the eligible amount as shown in the screenshot, and the final deduction allowed is only the 26K. My 1.5Lakh didn't get considered fully. Looks like I'll have to escalate the grievance, since the grievance that I filed on the income tax website isn't being attended to.

There are some more reasons that the deduction is not fully adjusted. 

On of the reason can be the income eligible for deduction u/c. VIA is fully covered. There is no more income in your case which can be adjusted against 80C deduction.

Capital gains are not adjusted against 80C deduction. But it will be adjusted against your basic exemption limit.

If you capital gain liability after all adjustment is below 12.5K, your net tax liability would be NIL. 

So, need not worry for such calculation.

@ Rashmi & Dhirajlal: When starting to file the returns, there are some yes/no questions asked. During that, one of the questions is that the algorithm has detected that there has been some employer contribution. But in the previous financial year, I had only worked in a company as a consultant (194JB), so there was no contribution from them towards my EPF. Even the TDS they deducted is much higher than the 26K. My EPF interest accumulated from my ex employer is less than the 26K. The only other income sources are from PPF interest, banks and a bit of freelancing done on online platforms. I list out all incomes before filing my returns, and there's nothing that matches the 26K, so it has to be a bug. I've escalated the matter via PGPortal. I hope they look into the matter. They usually are prompt in checking and responding. Else, CA Dhruva who replied above, has been kind enough to offer to help using the ITR filing tool that CA's use. I'm grateful for the help from all of y'all.

@ Rashmi: No it is a bug. On Sunday evening I escalated the matter via CPGRAMS PGPortal. On Monday evening an income tax officer called up and verified that there was an issue. He transferred the call to someone who was looking into the matter. He said he'd schedule a WebEx call the next morning and emailed me a link which didn't work. Next morning there was no WebEx call, and in the meanwhile, I found another bug: In 80TTA, the full 10K amount was not being accepted. Only the savings interest from HDFC bank was available to them, so only that much of a deduction could be claimed, even though I had savings interest from other banks too. So I reported that bug too by email, and I got a call again from the same number, saying they'd schedule a WebEx call, but with nothing else specified. No call happened, but the grievance filed on PGPortal has not yet been closed, so I trust they are still working to rectify the problem. As for the 26K amount, when I start filing ITR3, I'm asked a few questions. One of the questions is: "As per information available with Department, Contribution to pension scheme of Central Government has been made by employer (ReferSection 80CCD(2))" I'm asked to select yes/no, but irrespective of what I select, the amount shows up in VI-A. This 26K amount is not shown in 26AS and not shown in AIS either. In FY2021-22, since I had withdrawn my EPS (using form 10C) from the account that my first employer had created, and I received Rs.58K, I can only assume that the entire amount was not withdrawn, and the amount remaining in the account is 26K. That might be the 26K that is showing up in the income tax autofilled form. Sadly, I can't see the passbook for that EPFO account online even though I had filed a grievance to EPFO few years back, requesting them to show the passbook online. I assume I'd have to visit the EPFO office to check that.

Good news. By Thursday morning I got a call from the backend team and by evening they fixed the bugs. The 26K was the sum of HDFC bank's savings interest and FD interest which was wrongly showing up as employer contribution.

So to answer my original question: The 1.5 lakh deductions can be claimed by non-salaried people too.

@ Everyone: thank you very much for helping with suggestions.