Following through on pledges made when he assumed office, Indian Finance Minister Jaswant Singh this week announced the creation of a National Tax Tribunal designed to speed up the dispute resolution process.
The new Tribunal will aim to apply a single interpretation of the Income Tax Act. In addition, Singh will reportedly make provision for an extra 50 benches of appellate tribunal for resolving tax disputes, a measure which is designed to conclude all cases within six months. The Finance Minister also announced that a Tax Ombudsman will also be appointed to deal with tax cases.
“I have instructed that searches should be authorised only where credible evidence of substantial tax evasion exists. Search and seizure is to be resorted to with great care and utmost caution and to be undertaken only with orders from DG(Investigations)," Singh explained at the two-day conference of chief commissioners and director generals of the Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT) and Central Board of Customs and Excise (CBCE).
The Minister added that previous guidelines were too restrictive and revealed that as a result of this, around 27,000 cases are currently pending for technical breaches alone. He also suggested that Customs and Excise officials should implement a scheme whereby offences will be compounded on full payment of outstanding liabilities, as well as penalties amounting to more than 5% of total duty.
On the subject of indirect taxes, Singh spoke of the introduction of a self-assessment pilot scheme known as accelerated clearance of imports and exports, which is being piloted on selected goods.
Meanwhile, CBDT chairman P.L Singh informed reporters that revenues had risen by 26% to the end of June.
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