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| Edited By: Rakesh Bhatnagar |Source: DNA |Updated: Apr 25, 2010, 11:39 PM IST
Nobody’s ever tried to find out how much money is at stake in the Supreme Court in the various tax and accounting disputes, a conservative estimate suggests a figure of Rs1 lakh crore.
According to a recent government statement, there are 1,53,071 tax assessment appeals with a tax liability of Rs20.05 lakh crore pending with the commissioner of income tax. In addition, the customs, excise and service tax appellate tribunal carries a backlog of 46,930 appeals with a tax liability of Rs31,136 crore.
So far, taxation issues haven’t been dealt with very effectively because of certain drawbacks.
One of them is that taxation is a specialised subject that keeps changing with every year’s budget. Moreover, very few judges have enough knowledge of the subject.
Because of these factors, the Supreme Court today has more taxation cases pending before it than ever before. A judge who recently retired from the Supreme Court said that very few judges have knowledge of taxation-related issues yet some of them invariably hear tax disputes involving billions of rupees.
However, there’s something to look forward to. When justice SH Kapadia succeeds Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan on May 12, the government, individual taxpayers and the corporate world can expect their disputes to be settled fast.
Justice Kapadia’s interest in settling tax disputes quickly is understandable because he’s conscious of the fact that it’s revenue alone that makes the government tick. He also understandsand that unwarranted demands by tax authorities merely block investments by private investors. “I want my judicial officers to know what questions to ask in such cases [commercial and taxation]. My agenda is to reach out to them, interact with them and provide them access to such knowledge,” justice Kapadia said early this month at a seminar, in a clear indication of his policy.
“In the past, and rightly so, it was believed that judges should only know law. But my view is that today they should know concepts of economics, politics and commerce as well,” he added.
