Nirmala Sitharaman To Move Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill In Lok Sabha

Mumbai: In a recent development, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to move the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill, 2020 in Lok Sabha on Monday.

Meanwhile, the introduction of the bill was opposed by Congress members Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary and Shashi Tharoor. Chaudhary said that the bill has a specific nomenclature and the bills are in English or Hindi in general.

He accused the government of “imposing Hindi” and said that only 43 per cent of the people in the country were Hindi speakers.

Tharoor demanded the withdrawal of the bill, saying it was an injustice to honest taxpayers and was arbitrary. Sitharaman said that he used two expressions in his budget speech to resolve disputed tax matters and used the Hindi expression in the bill.

“There is no imposition of Hindi,” she had said.

The minister said that 4.83 lakh direct tax cases were pending and the government was providing a formula-based solution. Sitharaman, while announcing the ‘Vivad Se Vishwas’ scheme in the Union Budget, had said that 4.83 lakh direct tax cases were pending in various appellate forums – Commissioner (Appeals), ITAT, High Court and Supreme Court.

She said that similar to the indirect tax sub-development scheme brought in the previous budget, direct taxes were also being proposed to reduce litigation.

Under the ‘Vivad Se Vishwas’ scheme, a taxpayer will only have to pay the disputed taxes amount and will have to provide a full exemption of interest and penalty by 31 March 2020. Some additional amount will have to be paid by 31 March. The scheme will remain open till June 30, 2020. Taxpayers whose cases are pending at any stage can benefit from this scheme.

The minister had said that the Sabka Vishwas scheme had resulted in settling over 1,89,000 cases.

(With ANI Inputs) 

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