India stands out in the statistics on disputes as having far too many compared to other tax administrations and urgent action needs to be taken on this front.

Disputes accumulate in India due to the very structure and process of the appeal mechanism that tends to increase disputes from both taxpayer and tax administration sources.

The root cause for increase in disputes is the complexity of tax legislation. Laws should be written in simple language for taxpayers to understand.

Taxpayers should be informed about their tax liability in advance. It seems that although many laws themselves are compact in nature, delegated legislation in respect of such laws is elaborate. There is an urgent need to rationalise this and a Standard Operating Procedure SOP is a step in the right direction.

Retrospective amendment should be avoided as a principle

There is a need for change in the mind set of tax officers and auditors.

Dedicated High Court /Supreme Court benches for tax cases are required for unclogging the system.

Training of officers is absolutely necessary and, therefore, should form a significant component of their career. Training is needed for changing the attitude of officers.

To minimise the potential for disputes, clear and lucid clarifications on contentious issues should be issued regularly, and they should be binding on the tax department.