A Parliamentary committee has rapped the income tax department for the rising uncollected tax demand and “lack of sustained efforts” on its part to recover the pending amount, which rose to Rs 4.86 lakh crore in 2012-13 from Rs 4.08 lakh crore in 2011-12.

According to the figures submitted by the central board of direct taxes (CBDT) to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), of the total uncollected amount, Rs 2.47 lakh crore pertains to top 25 defaulters only, pending at various judicial fora.

“The committee had desired the department of revenue to vigorously pursue such cases. However, the ministry has furnished the routine reply that these cases are being persistently followed up by them. Keeping in view the pendency of such cases in various courts for a long period of time, the committee would reiterate that the department of revenue should take concrete measures to realise revenue in a time-bound manner,” the committee has recommended in its report submitted to Parliament.

Pulling up the I-T department on its laxity, the committee observed that demand of Rs 8,872.94 crore was pending with public sector units including LIC, SBI and BSNL while the department lost a major recovery demand of Rs 7,027.09 crore in case of LIC, to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), proving its “inefficiency in handling such cases which ultimately quashed at higher for apart from flawed assessments”. While raising concern over the manner in which the government cases are represented at various judicial fora, the Parliamentary panel said that during the last five years, more than 35-40 per cent of the appeal filed in the ITAT, high courts or Supreme Court, were decided against the department.

In order to rectify the situation, the committee urged the department to engage special counsels with “proven expertise in taxation matters to represent the complex cases in tribunals, high court or the Supreme Court.”

After being called the biggest litigant in the government in 2010 by the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the CBDT had asked its officials to refrain from filing frivolous appeals while tax demand limits for filing the same had also been raised.

Under fire, the CBDT has now proposed, an official said, “to engage senior counsels on the lines of senior counsel-special engagement as engaged by the law ministry to deal with cases related to international taxation”. The proposal is pending with the law ministry. (Indian Express)