Income tax collected almost a lakh crores - Recovery of arrears good
The collection of income tax in the current financial year till 15th November 2006 amounts to Rs.98 ,298 crore as against Rs.69,465 crore collected during the corresponding period of last financial year. ? Even recovery of outstanding income tax dues in the current year till September 2006 amounts to Rs.8 ,033 crore as compared to Rs.4,276 crore recovered during April-September 2005.
Apart from the statutory steps being taken for recovery of outstanding tax dues as prescribed under the Income Tax Act (including attachment of bank account, debtors, etc, attachment and sale of immovable property, etc) the following special measures are also being taken to expedite recovery of direct tax arrears:
Monitoring of recovery of arrears in large cases by a Task Force.
Identification of cases involving substantial amount of arrears pending before Commissioners (Appeals) and ITAT and requesting these authorities to dispose off such appeals early so that the demand can be collected during the current financial year itself.
Requesting the President of ITAT not to allow stay of demand beyond 180 days as prescribed in section 254(2A) of the Income-tax Act.
Requesting Settlement Commission to dispose off high-demand cases expeditiously.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance in the Rajya Sabha yesterday.
But is it fair to request the Tribunal not to grant stay beyond 180 days just because the government wants to create some arrears and show them as collected ?. Will the grounds for granting stay become stale after the magical 180 days for no fault of the assessee? The next stage of arrears collection should be for the Boards to give a direction to the appellate authorities not to grant stay or better still to pass orders in favour of Revenue!