PMO Seeks Litigation Withdrawal Update from Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi: The PMO has sought an update from the CBDT about the number of appeals it has withdrawn from various courts after a direction was recently issued to enhance monetary limits for filling appeals in various legal forums in order to reduce litigation between the Income-Tax department and the taxpayers.

The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has sought data on withdrawal of cases and the cases identified for withdrawal till August 31, official sources told PTI.

All the regional heads of the Income-Tax department have been asked to compile this data in a tabular format and send it to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) by September 5, they said.

The entire exercise of withdrawal of cases, on the basis of an order issued on August 8 for enhancement of monetary limits for filing of appeals in tribunals (ITAT) and courts (HC and Supreme Court), is stipulated to be completed by October, they said.

The CBDT frames policy for the I-T department.

The issue of litigation between the tax department and the taxpayers is being constantly monitored by the PMO as it is a special thrust area for the top office, the sources added.

The monetary limit for filing an appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has now been increased to Rs 50 lakh from Rs 20 lakh earlier.

In case of high courts, the limit has been doubled to Rs 1 crore and in case of Supreme Court, the revised limit for filing appeal has been increased from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore.

"There is a substantial pendency of appeals of the Income-Tax department before various appellate fora. The CBDT is aware of the importance of litigation management and has been continuously working towards achieving the same," the Board had said in a statement on August 8 while announcing the new limits.

It had said the revised limits will help "to effectively reduce taxpayer grievances and litigation and help the department focus on litigation involving complex legal issues and high tax effect."

The latest move, it had said, will further reduce time, effort and resources presently deployed in litigation to focus on issues involving litigation of substantial value.

These limits were last revised in July, 2018.