With the deadline looming for the Sabka Vishwas dispute resolution scheme, about 87% of eligible taxpayers have opted for the scheme and committed to pay about Rs 35,000 crore as taxes to the government, officials said. This has come as a relief to the government, which is grappling with a huge shortfall in tax revenue this fiscal.
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However, about 23,000 (about 12.5% of the total) eligible taxpayers have not yet opted for the scheme. These are mainly large taxpayers and in 7,100 such cases, a total tax amount of Rs 1.7 lakh crore is under litigation, they added. “The vast majority of the smaller taxpayers have already opted for the scheme,” official sources said.
When the scheme was announced in September, it was estimated that about 1.8 lakh taxpayers had legacy excise and service tax cases pending at different forums. The total tax revenue locked in these cases was Rs 3.6 lakh crore. The scheme expires on January 15.
Sources said that one of the reasons for big taxpayers not opting for the scheme could be resistance from the vast array of intermediaries including tax consultants, lawyers, etc, employed by these taxpayers. “For obvious reasons, the immediate settlement of these long pending cases is not seen in the best interests of these intermediaries,” sources said.
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Source: Financial Express
