Letters: Illusory arrears

I agree with T R Rustagi's Letter to the Editor "To tax or not to tax" (June 15), where he concluded that the so-called huge arrears of revenue were mostly illusory. Actually, the cases pending with tribunal, high courts and the Supreme Court are overwhelmingly lost by the Department of Revenue. Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam - in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on September 5, 2012 - gave the figures for the success rate of revenue cases, which indicated that the rate was abysmally pitiable. In plain terms, 84 per cent of departmental orders are set aside at the tribunal stage, 70 per cent at the high court stage and 90 per cent at the Supreme Court. He also said that Rs 86,000 crore were held up in court cases. But it should not give the impression that the government would get this much money, if the litigations were finalised. It would only get about 10-15 per cent of this amount, which might be about Rs 12,000 crore, if all cases were decided, which was not possible.

These are not the latest figures, but the main point remains the same.

Ironically, if the cases are not decided early by the tribunals and courts, the revenue of the government will be saved till then. A situation has developed where, as pointed out by the author of the letter, demands are raised and adjudications are made without any regard to legality or fairness. The officers have not been taking any decision except against taxpayers. They have fallen in the "unproductive work trap". The situation is pathetic. Do we need so many officers, possessing high qualifications, only to continue this onslaught on taxpayers?

Sukumar Mukhopadhyay New Delhi

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