By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 01, 2021: THE Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 (VsV) was enacted on March 17, 2020. The settlement provisions under the Income-tax Act, 1961 provides alternate mechanism to a taxpayer who chooses to exit the regular process of assessment which would have resulted into determination of tax liability and instead approached the Income Tax Settlement Commission (ITSC) for settlement of his case under Chapter XIX-A of the Income-tax Act.

As the VsV was enacted for the resolution of disputed tax and not for the taxes covered by an order in pursuance to the settlement of a case under Chapter XIX-A of the Income-tax Act, such cases as are covered by Chapter XIX-A of the Income-tax Act (whether they have attained finality or not) have always been, therefore, intended to be outside the purview of VsV.

With a view to remove any ambiguity, it is proposed in finance bill 2021 to amend the provisions of VsV to clarify the original legislative intent for which the definitions of appellant in section 2(1)(a), disputed tax in section 2(1)(j) and tax arrear in section 2(1)(o), of the VsV are proposed to be amended by way of removal of doubts by Bill. The amendments are proposed to take effect retrospectively from the March 17, 2020.