NEW DELHI: With Rs. 7.6 lakh crore stuck in total tax litigations in the country, the government has decided to double the threshold monetary limit for tax department to file appeals in tribunals and courts, which will bring down litigation by 41 per cent, and will cost Rs.6,000 crore to the government Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
Briefing the media on steps taken for reducing tax litigation, Goyal said, "The government hopes to cut 41 per cent of tax cases after raising threshold limit for filing appeals in tribunals and courts."
The Union Minister further stated that the government is constantly making changes in the interest of honest taxpayers.
He added the income-tax refunds worth over Rs 70,000 crore have been issued to the taxpayers.
"Income-tax refunds worth over Rs 70,000 crore have been issued to the taxpayers. Tax cases worth Rs 5 lakh crore stuck in litigation; new thresholds will lead to a reduction of 18 per cent in tax cases," he said.
However, he added that it would not result in any loss to the exchequer as sometimes cost of litigation is higher than that.
"More than 66 per cent of cases stuck in the litigation involves 1.8 per cent in value. In many cases cost of litigation is higher than the recovery," Goyal told reporters today.
He said the move is to create trust in the tax administration and give relief to honest, small and mid-sized taxpayers.
In order to reduce the long pending grievances of taxpayers and to minimise litigations pertaining to tax matters and facilitate the Ease of Doing Business, the Centre decided to increase the threshold monetary limits for filing Departmental Appeals at various levels, be it Appellate Tribunals, High Courts and the Supreme Court.
This is being perceived as a major step in the direction of litigation management of both direct and indirect taxes as it will effectively reduce minor litigations and help the Department to focus on high-value litigations.
(with ANI inputs)