Govt awaits Rs 1.5 lakh cr in arrears on tax, other disputes

Disputes or otherwise, the government is yet to receive over Rs 1 lakh crore in taxes from corporate and other entities and add to it other arrears worth about Rs 47,000 crore, the total outstanding equals more than half of the total revenue deficit this year.

At about Rs 1,50,000 crore, the unrealised tax and non-tax revenue is 53 per cent of the total revenue deficit of over Rs 2,82,000 crore projected by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget for 2009-10.

The arrears outstanding at the end of reporting year 2007-08 pertain to a period of up to 10 years or more and also include interests from state governments and PSUs.

In totality, the arrears that the government is still awaiting are held up in litigation, or are due for some other reasons. If realised, they could have substantially reduced the Centre's borrowings, pegged at over Rs 4,00,000 crore for the current fiscal.

Bulk of the tax arrears is caught under disputes and amounts to over Rs 64,000 crore, while the amounts not under dispute total at about Rs 40,000 crore also include cases pending for adjudication.

Out of the total unrealised tax revenue of Rs 1,03,808 crore, those related to corporate tax alone account for about Rs 40,000 crore, while a similar amount is related to other income taxes.

The arrears related to customs, excise and service taxes amount to about Rs 23,662 crore.

At about Rs 50,000 crore, nearly half of the total tax revenue arrears are pending for a period of 2-5 years. The tax arrears outstanding for more than 10 years amount to about Rs 3,000 crore, nearly one-third of which is under dispute.

The non-tax revenue arrears, totalling about Rs 47,000 crore, include nearly half the amount pending for over five years.

Surprisingly, about 70 per cent of the non-tax revenue arrears are locked with public sector and other undertakings on account of interest receipts, sources said, adding most of the PSUs did not have the capacity to service the loans given by the government as they were either sick or under revival.