Tax Dispute Management: Dear FM, Routine Measures will not help!

The pendency of cases relating to direct and indirect taxes in quasi judicial and judicial forums has reached alarming proportions as the numbers indicate. An immediate action plan needs to be put in place before it gets out of hand. The reasons for the poor performance as recorded by the author are very much true. The plans of TARC report may not see the light of the day as there is no change either in the attitude or in the approach of the departments. In the present set up coming together of both Boards to solve this issue will not happen. Further the settlement commission with the present structure, acting like an extension of service to a long served executive, will not yield any fruitful results as the statastics indicate. There is need for a relook into the appointment and objectives of the settlement commission. Similarly tribunals must be made active by providing proper manpower and infrastructure.

The pendency of notices / cases, starting from the call book cases till the cases in the appeal stage with commisioner (appeals), are to be disposed off as per the merits of the case in a time bound manner. If proper and legallly acceptable decisions are not taken the pendency never gets cleared as such cases will certainly come back for denovo decision. The success rate of the appeals filed by the department in various tribunals, Highcourts and Supreme court clearly indicate the time , manpower and money that is being wasted in fruitless litigations. If we don't act on priority, we may never achieve the desired goals.Unless an immediate remedial action as recommended by TARC is taken, the central tax departments may loose their relevance.

M G Kodandaram
Superintendent
NACEN Bengaluru

madihally kodandaram 04/06/2015