Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said as many as 37,506 tax dispute cases were pending before various Income Tax Appellate Tribunals having a financial implication of Rs 1.45 lakh crore at end March 2015.
Similarly, Rs 37,683.98 crore (Rs 376.83 billion) has been locked in 34,281 tax dispute cases pending before various high courts at the end of 2014-15, he said in written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Also 5,661 dispute cases were pending for redressal in the Supreme Court with the financial implication of Rs 4,654.48 crore (Rs 46.54 billion) at the end of last fiscal.
To address issue of pending cases at ITAT, Jaitley said, the limit of total income of cases that may be decided by single member bench of tribunal has been increased from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.
"The scope of cases for which settlement application can be made before the Income tax Settlement Commission has been enlarged," he said.
Scope of Authority for Advanced Rulings has been increased so as to enable the resident taxpayers to obtain an advance ruling in respect of their income tax liability above a defined threshold, he said.
Framework for Advance Pricing Agreement introduced in 2012 has been strengthened through roll back provision.
With regard to administrative measures, Jaitley said, "CBDT has issued directions to field officers outlining the role and responsibility of standing counsels, monitoring of pending litigation and the manner in which the counsels should be assisted by filed officers so as to ensure timely compliance of courts' directions and early disposal of appeals."
He further said the assistance rendered in identifying cases for bunching has resulted in bunching of 2,064 appeals involving 16 issues in the Supreme Court. Out of this, three issues involving 920 cases have been decided in the current financial year, he added.
In a separate reply, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said there were 3,296 corporate cases having outstanding income tax amount of more than Rs 10 crore at the end of March 2015.
With regard to indirect tax, Rs 65,576 crore (Rs 655.76 billion) central excise tax arrears pending as of April 1, 2015, Sinha said.
Pending arrear for customs and service tax are Rs 21,021 crore (Rs 210.21 billion) and Rs 83,112 crore (Rs 831.12 billion) respectively at the end of March 2015, he added.
