The government has garnered Rs 72,480 crore so far through the direct tax dispute resolution scheme, ‘Vivad Se Vishwas’.
Till November 17, 2020, a total of 48,855 declarations have been filed under the scheme that involves a disputed tax demand of Rs 31,734 crore. Central public sector utilities will be settling their disputes totaling Rs 1 lakh crore under the scheme.
The government had extended the deadline for the third time to enable payment under the Vivad Se Vishwas scheme by three months to March 31, 2021, due to the pandemic. However, declarations need to be filed by December 31, 2020.
At a high-level review meeting by the Income-Tax department, the decision was made to launch an e-campaign to inform taxpayers about the scheme, guiding and facilitating them in the filing of declaration and removing any difficulties faced by them in availing the scheme.
The scheme provides for settlement of disputed tax, disputed interest, disputed penalty, or disputed fees concerning an assessment or reassessment order on payment of 100 percent of the disputed tax and 25 percent of the disputed penalty or interest or fee.
The Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 was enacted on March 17, 2020, to settle direct tax disputes locked up in various appellate forums. The date was extended from March 31, 2020, to June 30, 2020, to December 31, 2020, to provide more time to taxpayers to settle disputes under Vivad se Vishwas.
Earlier, both the declaration and the payment without additional amount under the Vivad se Vishwas were required to be made by December 31, 2020. The date since then has been extended to March 2021.
