Government turning tax-payer friendly

New Delhi, Feb 29: Terming tax disputes as a scourge of tax-friendly regime, Fince Minister Arun Jaitley, presenting the Union Budget for 2016-17, on Monday unveiled a new dispute resolution mechanism to minimise litigation. He also said Income Tax officials will be responsible for higher interest payout if there is a delay in implementing the orders of appellate authority. He said there are around 300,000 tax cases pending with the First Appellate Authority involving a tax dispute of around Rs.550,000 crore. As per the new dispute resolution mechanism unveiled by Jaitley, a tax-payer who has an appeal pending as of today before the Commissioner (Appeals) can settle his case by paying the disputed tax and interest up to the date of assessment. There will be no pelty in respect of income tax cases with a disputed tax up to Rs.10 lakh.

According to Jaitley, the cases with disputed tax exceeding Rs.10 lakh will be subjected to only 25 percent of the minimum of the imposable pelty for both direct and indirect taxes. He said any pending appeal against a pelty order can also be settled by paying 25 percent of the minimum of the imposable pelty. (IANS)