Taxmen plan to end 2.5 lakh lawsuits

Income tax department plans to write to over 2.59 lakh taxpayers asking them to avail the one-time dispute resolution scheme to settle their cases so as to bring down the number of tax litigations.

The Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme, introduced from June 1, seeks to address the issue of pending litigation before Commissioner of I-T (Appeal). The scheme is open till December 31.

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) will use email to communicate with the appellants to cut down on communication time. “We have estimated that each Commissioner of I-T (Appeal) would have about 300-400 litigations pending before them. We will send these assessees emails informing about the benefits of the dispute resolution scheme,” according to IT officials.

There were 73,402 appeals with tax effect above Rs 10 lakh and 1,85,858 appeals with tax effect below Rs 10 lakh which are pending before CIT (Appeal) as on February 29.

Thus, 2,59,260 appellants are eligible for the benefit of this scheme. The publicity drive will not be as massive as the IDS. Since IT department knows its target assessees are, and will send them pamphlets and also emails. As per the scheme, a taxpayer who has an appeal pending before the CIT can settle his/her case by paying the disputed tax and interest up to the date of assessment.