4 Lakh Crores - Income Tax Arrears
“THE total income-tax arrears outstanding as on December 31, 2012 are Rs 4,18,696 crore,” the Finance Minister informed the Rajya Sabha yesterday.
This includes tax arrears of Rs 1,16,773.77 crore by major defaulter Hassan Ali Khan, Chandrika Tapuriah (Rs 47,040.99 crore) and (late) Harshad S. Mehta (Rs 17,050.56 crore).
The Government has constituted a Special Cell to exclusively deal with recovery of arrears classified as “Assessee not traceable” and “Assessee with no assets/ inadequate assets for recovery”.
As a result of recovery measures undertaken by the Income-Tax Department, total amount of Rs 16,686 crore has been collected during April 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012, which includes Rs 4.65 crore due to the efforts of the Special Cell.
“As tax arrear is not a static concept, it is not possible to recover in full at any given point of time,” enlightened the FM.
The Minister of State for Finance S.S. Palanimanickam informed that arrears of indirect taxes was Rs 68,741.02 crore in 2011-12 and Rs 56,889.62 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 44,212.23 crore, in 2009-10.
Targets for recovery of arrears of indirect taxes for 2013-14 is fixed at Rs 4,000 crore.