Decide 1.49 lakh tax demand cases by March: CBDT to IT dept

In yet another move to ease refunds, CBDT has directed Income Tax department to take "urgent" steps and resolve by next month tax demand disputes worth over Rs 16,000 crore of more than 1.49 lakh taxpayers.
The directions pertain to notices issued by the taxman to a number of assesses under section 245 of the IT Act for 2015-16 fiscal where the latter has contested the demand raised and have emailed their response to the CPC.
An official data said an outstanding amount of Rs 16,590.22 crore is lying in disputes as 1,49,321 individuals or entities have raised objections to demands made by the taxman.

"As many of these cases are time-barring by March 31, 2016, the jurisdictional assessing officers may be impressed upon to examine the response of the taxpayers urgently and take appropriate action in respect of such demand entries..," the Central Board of Direct Taxes said in a recent order.
The CBDT, in this regard, has earlier asked its Bengaluru-based Central Processing Centre (CPC) to take a step-by-step action in these cases within a stipulated time of one month.
The Board had said that when a taxpayer contests a demand, the CPC should issue a reminder to the AO concerned about the contention of the assessee, asking them to either confirm or make appropriate changes to the demand within 30 days.

"In case no response is received from the jurisdictional AO within the stipulated period of 30 days, CPC would issue refunds without any adjustment," the CBDT order had said.