Form panel to tackle pending tax appeals: Parliamentary panel

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has asked the department of revenue to constitute an expert panel to meticulously examine the issue of pending litigation and propose remedial measures at the earliest with 621,000 tax appeals involving ?29.79 lakh crore pending at various courts.

The parliamentary standing committee on finance, in its report tabled Wednesday in Lok Sabha, flagged shortage of manpower at the first appellate level. It noted that the cost of litigation to the government was about ?108 crore in 2023-24. "The committee also desires that this matter should be addressed with utmost sincerity and urgency," the committee said.

In FY2022, the total number of appeals pending at various fora was 553,000, involving ?20.82 lakh crore. The Centre introduced the Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) in 2023, however there was no substantial improvement at the departmental appellate level, the report noted.


Tax Data
The parliamentary panel also recommended that the department of revenue to segregate the data of Personal Income Tax (PIT) as early as possible.

The panel noted that at present, (current year) Personal Income Tax (PIT) also included about ? 1.5 lakh crore of business income apart from individual income.