New Delhi: The CBDT has set the ball rolling to implement a recently announced scheme to settle direct tax cases by asking its offices across the country to provide it with data on pending appeals in high courts. The 'Vivad se Vishwas' scheme was announced in the February 1 Union Budget.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which frames the policy for the Income Tax Department, on Tuesday wrote to all principal chief commissioners asking them to collate the data and send it to it by next week.
"In order to implement the scheme, the CBDT needs database on such litigations pending at high court level," the communication to the commissioners read.
"It is therefore, requested that the data on pending appeals at high court level as on January 31, 2020, be obtained with the help of court registry and the same may be supplemented with the records of the field office," it stated.
The CBDT has asked the regional Income Tax Department chiefs to "personally monitor" the exercise and submit the data by February 14 to it through e-mail, as per the communication, which has been accessed by PTI.
The scheme, proposed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech, aims to settle and see a finalisation of 4.83 lakh direct tax cases pending at various appellate forums such as the Commissioner (Appeals), the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), high courts and the Supreme Court.
Officials told PTI that while the department has data on pending cases at three forums, the information on cases being contested at various high courts needs to be updated.