Centre Mulls One-Time Amnesty Scheme for Old Income Tax Cases

To resolve legacy income tax disputes that sums up to Rs 8 lakh crore, a government appointed task force could recommend a one-time amnesty to resolve the issue.

While the recommendation sounds good in theory, aiming to reduce the tax litigations significantly, it’s true success will depend on the exact details of the amnesty, according to experts, reported Hindustan Times.

“Litigation of this nature, especially in case of cross-border tax issues and transfer pricing, makes it difficult for companies to do business in India. Bringing about a scheme to resolve such long pending litigation would be very welcome. Taxpayers would unlock so much of their time, energy and resources to focus on their businesses and the intricacies of solving them rather than resolving repeated tax issues,”

Daksha Baxi, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to Hindustan Times

In Detail

While the exact details of the scheme cannot be explained at the moment, it is most likely going to be a one-time amnesty window of three-four months.

The government, last month, asked the task force to include the reduction in number and speedy resolution of tax cases in it’s objectives as well. The task force has been asked to submit the draft by 31 July, the report added.

The data complied by Dhruva Advisors in it’s research paper, show that 4,65,349 long-drawn litigation cases have been pending at various tribunals and courts. 

Experts wish for this scheme to be similar to Sabka Vikas, the legacy dispute resolution scheme for litigation related to excise and service tax, that was announced in the recent budget. They believe that scheme modeled similar to this, might work.

“The amnesty scheme announced for indirect taxes waives both interest and penalty amounts and also reduces the disputed tax amount significantly.”

Nikhil Rohera, PWC to Hindustan Times 

The task force that is headed by Akhilesh Ranjan was asked last year by the government to minimise tax litigations by increasing the threshold monetary limits for filing appeals at various levels.

(With Inputs from PTI, Hindustan Times)