Tax dispute cases to see 37% fall: Goyal

The amount locked up in tax litigation will come down by Rs 5,600 crore as the government has decided to hike the threshold monetary limit to file appeals in tribunals and courts, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.

As of March, 2017, tax disputes worth Rs 7.6 lakh crore were stuck in various stages of litigation in tribunals, High Courts and the Supreme Court, he said.

In order to reduce litigation, the government on Wednesday hiked the threshold limit for filing appeals in tribunals to Rs 20 lakh, while the same for High Courts and the Supreme Court has been raised to Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore, respectively. Earlier, the threshold for filing appeals by the Tax department in ITAT/CESTAT was Rs 10 lakh, while the same in High Courts and the Supreme Court was Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, respectively.

With this, tax litigation in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will get reduced by 41 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.

In all, 29,580 cases would be withdrawn from various litigation fora, reducing tax disputed cases by 37 per cent.

“In case of CBDT, the withdrawal of 41 per cent of the cases, will have a revenue impact of Rs 4,800 crore in absolute terms, while in case of CBIC, withdrawal of 18 per cent of cases will have a revenue impact of Rs 800 crore,” Goyal said.