NEW DELHI: With just a week before it is to end, the Vivad se Vishwas Scheme offered by the Income Tax Department is yet to meet the expectations of the revenue department. Officials lay the blame on the pandemic and a lack of manpower.
“Under the Vivad se Vishwas Scheme, so far, it was ascertained that a total of 45,855 declarations have been filed in Form 1 till 17th November, 2020 and the disputed demand covered by these declarations amounts to Rs 31,734 crore,” a finance ministry source said. The total taxes collected under the scheme till date stand at Rs 72,480 crore, they added.
However this is far below the expectations of the Revenue department, which had hoped to realise at least Rs 2 lakh crore under the scheme. According to Shahank Saurav, one of the applicants under the scheme, despite tall claims and multiple clarifications, the ground reality has been very different.
“The Income tax department is not issuing Form 3 (most important step in this Scheme) in those cases where assessee has filed appeal after 31 January 2020 (cut off date for this scheme) because assessment order was not served on the assessee. Service of assessment order to the assessee is a perquisite for filing appeal by the aggrieved party.
This stand of tax officials is erroneous in law and against CBDT’s own circular,” he said, blaming the problems on the indifferent attitude of tax officials. Revenue department sources admitted that there have been some complaints and said officials have been asked to adopt a proactive approach by regularly monitoring Form 3 issues for those taxpayers who have filed declarations, and completing any pending rectifications.