Tax arrears of Rs 2.93 Lakh Crores!
THE Direct Tax arrears as on March 31, 2010 is Rs. 2.48 Lakh Crores while the indirect taxes arrears constituting excise, customs and Service Tax is Rs. 44,212 Crores. The increase in arrears is 16% for direct taxes and 30 percent for indirect taxes, compared to the previous year. This information was given by Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
Arrears in the Tax Departments are a big joke - most of the arrears are not really realisable - they are arrears as an opinion of the Tax Departments, but in fact they are all held up in appellate forums. And they fix targets for realising arrears and they have Tax Arrears Cells headed by Chief Commissioner level officers who would write profound letters to the field on the need to realise arrears and fly around the country in executive class to realise that the arrears cannot be realised.