Lok Sabha Question No. 2030 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-07-31
Subject: Outstanding Taxes against Corporates
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: GOPAL CHINAYYA SHETTY

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF FINANCE

DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

**LOK    SABHA**

**unSTARRED QUESTION  NO. 2030**

TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE  31 ST JULY ,2015

9 TH Shravana, 1937 (SAKA)

**OUTSTANDING TAXES AGAINST CORPORATES**

2030. SHRI  GOPAL SHETTY:

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

(a)  the details/number of corporate houses against whom amount of more than Rs. 10 crore is outstanding as Income Tax, Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax as on date;

(b)  the number out of the above cases under litigation;

(c) whether there is any provision for out of court settlement of cases under      litigation and if so, the details thereof; and

(d) the steps taken by the Government to expeditiously recover the outstanding     taxes including those under litigation?

**ANSWER**

**MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE**

**(JAYANT SINHA)**

(a): As on 31.3.2015,  there were 3296 corporate cases having outstanding income tax amount of more than Rs. 10 crore.  Indirect Taxes,  in the form of Customs Duty, Central Excise Duty and Service Tax are leviable on goods and services and not on  corporate houses.  Information in respect of details of  outstanding arrears  relating to Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax is not maintained centrally corporate house-wise.   However, the  All India figures of pending arrears as on 01.04.2015 is as under:

(Rs. In crore)

| Central Excise   | 65,576   |
|------------------|----------|
| Customs          | 21,021   |
| Service Tax      | 83,112   |

(b): As on 31.03.2015, out of 3296 corporate cases,  1320  cases  are under litigation under Income Tax Act, 1961.  However, in respect of demands raised in March, 2015, more cases may have gone in litigation under the Income Tax Ac, 1961 in the next quarter.   Information in respect of cases relating to Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax involving revenue of Rs.10 crore or more, pending before various courts and before appellate fora is given in Annexure-I.

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(c):   There is no provisions in the Income Tax Act, 1961, Central Excise Act, 1944, Customs Act, 1962 and Finance Act, 1994 for out of court settlement   of cases under litigation.

(d): Recovery of  tax arrears is an ongoing process. Besides action for collection/recovery, as stipulated under the statutes relating to Direct Taxes (including attachment of movable or attachment and sale of immovable properties), the Income-tax Department has also devised a scheme towards focused action by field formations which inter alia includes  setting targets for recovery of arrears as well as current demand raised, regular monitoring of the actions of the assessing officer by the hierarchical superior authorities, utilizing information from various data bases like Individual Transaction Statement and 360-degree profile generated by the Department and data bases of other agencies like FIU-IND, etc about tax-defaulters, taking assistance of the Investigation Wing in important cases for identification of assets, guidelines for Tax Recovery Officers for focused efforts towards recovery, adherence to guidelines for dealing with stay petitions and early disposal of appeals especially in high demand cases, etc.

With regard to indirect taxes, recovery of duty/tax is done in terms of the relevant  provisions of Central Excise Act, 1944, Customs Act, 1962 and the Finance Act, 1994. Besides, following steps have also been initiated to recover the arrears of Indirect Taxes:-

(i) Where substantial amount of arrears has been locked up in various Courts/ Appellate fora, early hearing petitions are being filed.

(ii) Efforts have been intensified to get the stay orders vacated by pursuing the cases vigorously.

(iii) Cases of similar nature are bunched together for expeditious disposal by the appellate authorities.

(iv) Wherever no stay has been granted or where stay granted has lapsed, quick action for realization of arrears by attachment of movable/ immovable assets or recovery from sums due to the defaulting assessee elsewhere is taken.

(v) Creation of a database containing details of all cases where action under Section 142 of the Customs Act has been initiated, to enable necessary monitoring.

(vi) Regular inspections of cases of arrears of revenue of the field formations are being undertaken and required action for recovery is being pointed out to the formations.

****

**Annexre-I**

**Cases involving revenue of Rs.10 crore or more pending before various courts and before appellate fora is as under:**

| **As on 31st March 2015**   |                                   |             |        |                    |         |                 |         |           |         |
|-----------------------------|-----------------------------------|-------------|--------|--------------------|---------|-----------------|---------|-----------|---------|
| S No                        | Appellate Forum                   | **Customs** |        | **Central Excise** |         | **Service Tax** |         | **Total** |         |
| S No                        | Appellate Forum                   | No          | Amount | No                 | Amount  | No              | Amount  | No        | Amount  |
| 1                           | 2                                 | 3           | 4      | 5                  | 6       | 7               | 8       | 9         | 10      |
| 1                           | Supreme Court (Assessee appeal)   | 26          | 1699.1 | 35                 | 1220.1  | 5               | 380.1   | 66        | 3299.3  |
| 2                           | Supreme Court (Department appeal) | 25          | 1173.6 | 78                 | 2881.1  | 19              | 732.6   | 122       | 4787.3  |
| 3                           | High Court (Assessee appeal)      | 29          | 834.4  | 93                 | 3056.9  | 55              | 3466    | 177       | 7357.3  |
| 4                           | High Court (Department appeal)    | 25          | 959.7  | 96                 | 3890    | 21              | 827.2   | 142       | 5676.9  |
| 5                           | CESTAT (Assessee appeal)          | 86          | 4034.8 | 660                | 18501.5 | 696             | 34093.5 | 1442      | 56629.8 |
| 6                           | CESTAT (Department appeal)        | 22          | 795.8  | 91                 | 1992.4  | 63              | 3154    | 176       | 5942.2  |