New Delhi: To minimise litigation and tackle taxpayers’ grievances,  the Centre has decided to increase threshold monetary limits at which the tax department can challenge rulings in favour of taxpayers. Earlier, the tax departments used to challenge orders against them in appellate tribunals if the dispute over tax was over Rs 10 lakh. The Centre has now raised this limit to Rs 20 lakh. This means the authorities will file appeals in the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) or Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) only if the tax amount involved is rs 20 lakh or more.

The government earlier used to challenge verdicts in the Supreme Court if the dispute was over Rs 25 lakh, now this limit has been raised to Rs 1 crore. Likewise, appeals will now be filed in the high courts if the tax amount is Rs 50 lakh or more, up from Rs 20 lakh at present.

As the I-T department is the biggest litigant in the country, this will effectively reduce minor litigation and help the department focus on high-value cases.