TIOL-DDT 2976 · Wednesday, 23 November 2016 · story 1 of 9

Indirect Tax Case Pending for Nearly Fifty Years

- A Show Cause Notice was issued in 1968 and the case is still pending! This case will celebrate its Golden Jubilee soon.

- There are 204 cases pending with appellate commissioners for more than ten years.

The Union Minister of State for Finance Mr. Santosh Kumar Gangwar informed the Rajya Sabha yesterday:

The category wise details of the tax evasion by corporates pending in various Courts in India is not maintained centrally. However, the details of the pending cases filed by Income Tax Department in various Courts, including Income Tax Appellate Tribunals for violations of various provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961 which may also include the cases of Tax evasion are as follows:

Filed by Department as on 30.06.2016

Forum

Total

More than 10 yrs

Income Tax Appellate Tribunal

23288

242

High Court

25801

742

Supreme Court

4547

145

Indirect Tax

Total No of cases against corporates pending in various forums as on 30/09/2016 is as given in table below.

Forum

Total

More than 10 yrs

Commissioner (Appeal)

20212

204

Settlement Commission

288

0

CESTAT

41473

1222

High Court

5791

799

Supreme Court

1308

83

To a specific question, which is the oldest among such pending cases and how old is the case, the Minister replied, "The details as regards the individual cases (case wise data) is not maintained centrally. Further, the disclosure of information regarding specific taxpayers is prohibited except as per procedure laid down under section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961."

Oldest case: The oldest case pending in Indirect Taxes is against Hindustan Motors in which the Show Cause Notice was issued in 1968 and the amount involved is 3 lakh rupees.