Income Tax Department has become the biggest litigant in Govt. of India: Pranab Mukherjee
merisarkar news service
New Delhi, July 24, 2010
IT department has earned the dubious distinction: FM
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked the Income Tax Department to reexamine the way it handles tax disputes. He said, the Department is filing appeals in a routine manner without careful thought and examination leading to the Income Tax Department earning the dubious distinction of being the biggest litigant in the Government of India.
Finance minister said that some times courts have rejected the plea of the department only on account of gross delays in filing the petitions.
Mr. Mukherjee was speaking at the 150th anniversary of the Income Tax in India in New Delhi on Saturday. The Finance Minister said, these issues require a re-look at the system of legal and judicial management.
He said that there must be institutional arrangements to address tax disputes to the satisfaction of both taxpayers and tax collectors so as to reduce the number of litigations to a minimum.
The Finance Minister said that the proposed Direct Taxes Code, expected to replace the Income Tax Act from the next fiscal, will provide a taxation regime which is simple and broad based and in turn will lead to lower tax rates, better tax compliance and reduced litigation.
He said a Bill on the code will be tabled in the upcoming session of Parliament starting on Monday.
The Finance Minister also informed that the annual growth of direct taxes has averaged about 24 per cent in the last five years. He showed optimism that this growth in Income tax collection would continue given the projected growth of Indian economy at 8.5 per cent in this fiscal.
