GST Will Reduce India’s Pending Tax Cases

Tax cases are much of concern in the Indian economy as more than 2 lakh tax cases are currently floating through various appellate litigations on all the levels of the judiciary. The tax cases have compounded with around 4.7 percent of India’s total gross domestic product and this economic survey may further extract interesting findings over tax litigations in the country.

Anita Rastogi, indirect tax partner at a reputed firm stated that “Many a time, tax officers consider issuing tax notices and leave it to the courts to finally take a call on the tax position. This gets accentuated on matters where more than one interpretation is possible. Also, once a tax demand had been issued for a particular year, recurring notices are issued for all subsequent years till the matter attains finality. This increases litigation manifold and the amount stuck becomes huge.”

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As a turndown fact from the economic survey, tax department losses 65 percent of the cases and to the surprise, more and more cases are falling from the tax department. Now according to the latest measures taken in the Union budget, the dispute resolution process is now much more concerned and smoother than previously followed along with measures taken in the advance rulings system, pre-notice consultations and in the regulation-rules for show cause notices.

A partner in reputed form said that “So far, after GST implementation, more than two dozen writ petitions on different issues have already been filed in various courts. While the GST Council is pragmatically addressing the matters reaching the writ Courts, new issues such as benefits to backward areas may add to the already pending list.”

A pre-notice consultation in the rule book of GST may further help in tackling down the tax litigations issues.