New Delhi: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Amar Patnaik Friday welcomed the Union government’s Direct Tax Vivaad se Vishwas (Amendment) Bill 2020 which provides an opportunity to taxpayers to settle their tax disputes by paying just due taxes with complete waiver of interest and penalty by March 31.
While speaking on behalf of the party in Rajya Sabha, the BJD MP, however, raised questions over the time frame given by the government to settle the disputes and said that the operationalisation of the scheme may not see happier results.
“I have certain caveats that whether the timeline is too stiff because within that particular time the taxpayer has to take care of whether the provision is beneficial to him and then after that, getting that money to deposit it and getting a certificate will take time,” the BJD MP said.
Patnaik also apprised the House of the issues the Income Tax authorities may face during the settlement of disputes.
“In a tax dispute, there are several issues which are mentioned but the provision says that all the issues have to be settled for the case to be closed and not just separate issues. Now, that would probably create a problem for the I-T authorities as well as the taxpayer because the latter might feel that in certain cases, he/she is on a very strong ground,” Patnaik said.
He said that the circular says that I-T officials have been given the 100 per cent target to trace them.
He said that only 10 per cent was collected in the indirect taxes regime, when a similar scheme was introduced. “There has been a much more liberal scheme. But, still I am afraid that the implementation will probably result not into a happier situation for the government,” he added.
