By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 24, 2016: THE President of India, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, today inaugurated the All India Members Conference of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal as part of its Platinum Jubilee Celebrations in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that over the years, there has been a sharp increase in direct tax litigations. The rising trends in tax disputes and the quantum involved in tax litigations, call for an innovative tax litigation management system. Transfer pricing, international taxation and taxation of digital economy are the frontier areas of taxation of modern complex economy, which require special skill sets. Over the years, taxation department has responded to meet the challenges through capacity development. The rising disputes in these areas call for trained manpower in both the tax department as well as in tax judiciary to keep India globally competitive in tax judiciary system.

The President said that the complexity and challenges of the taxation system may lead to grievances amongst the tax payers. The quick resolution of disputes is one of the important ways to reduce grievances of the tax payers. Speedy justice requires a high degree of legal, technical and technological expertise in the organization. It also requires continuous updation of knowledge in the fast changing legal and economic eco-system. Due to technology, the speed of business has increased exponentially. The tech-savvy entrepreneurs and global Indians demand justice delivery system in line with the best global practices. Meeting the expectations of these twenty-first century entrepreneurs is a challenging job. He expressed hope that members of the ITAT family and the Ministry of Law would respond to these challenges pro-actively.

While speaking on this occasion, the Justice T.S.Thakur, Chief Justice of India, also emphasized the need for fully aware tech savvy members at the ITAT benches so that a speedy and fair justice could be given to the litigants. He said technical upgradation is the need of hour and we must work in this regard.