There has been a sharp rise in 2011of amount of money locked in income tax disputes. The disputed amount locked with Income Tax department has jumped to Rs 4,36,741 crore and this disclosure was made by the finance ministry.

As reported by The Business Standard report: The disputed amount jumped from Rs 2,43,603 crore to Rs 4,36,741 crore between January and December 2011.The disclosure was made by the finance ministry in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The significance of the amount locked in disputes may be gathered from the fact that the net direct tax collection in 2010-11 was Rs 4.46 lakh crore and is estimated to be around Rs 4.94 lakh crore in 2011-12.

The number of cases pending at the level of commissioner of income tax (appeal), went up from 153,703 as on December 31, 2010, to 193,525 as on December 31, 2011. The total disputed amount pending at this level grew from Rs 1,16,898 crore to Rs 2,52,846 crore during the period under consideration.

STUCK MONEY

In comparison, the number of cases pending at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunals has only risen from 28,992 to 29,842, with the amount locked up from Rs 1,07,342 crore to Rs 1,21,559 crore in the 2011 calendar year.

At the level of high courts, the number of cases went down in 2011 from 32,072 to 30,213, but the disputed amount has grown from Rs 18,319 crore to Rs 58,033 crore. The number of cases in the Supreme Court during this period increased from 5,379 to 5,943 and the disputed amount from Rs 1,044 crore to Rs 4,303 crore.

The disputed amount and growing pendency of cases is despite the Comptroller and Auditor General of India repeatedly telling the income tax department to take steps on reducing the pendency of cases.

The finance ministry says the Central Board of Direct Taxes had been giving focused attention on increasing the disposal of appeals by the commissioners.

“Annual action plan in this regard is drawn, fixing the targets of disposal of appeals and prescribing the monitoring mechanism. Every effort is made to maximise the disposal, keeping in view the resources available,” minister of state for finance S S Palanimanickam has stated in his reply to the question, on steps being taken to expedite settlement of disputes.

He also said the income tax department requested the tribunal and courts for expeditious disposal, on a case to case basis.