Even public sector banks don’t want to opt for ‘Vivaad se Vishwas’ — a tax settlement scheme that aims to resolve disputes

• Public sector banks may not opt for ‘Vivaad se Vishwas’ — a scheme that seeks to resolve ₹9.32 lakh crore worth tax disputes.
  
• The Income Tax department reportedly approached State Bank of India, Bank of India and Central Bank of India aside from LIC, Air India, and many other state-owned companies.
  
• However, the banks said they will decide on a “case to case basis” as the I-T department imposed as the taxes imposed on them aren’t justified.
  

Government-owned companies and public sector banks are not interested in opting for the ‘Vivaad se Vishwas’ scheme, which seeks to resolve ₹9.32 lakh crore ($128.5 billion) worth tax disputes.

The scheme waives the interest and penalty levied on taxpayers given the company decides not to precipitate the case and pays the principal amount demanded by the tax department. It aims to resolve as many as 483,000 pending disputes.

The Income Tax department reportedly approached State Bank of India, Bank of India and Central Bank of India. However, the banks said they will decide on a “case to case basis” as the taxes imposed by the I-T department aren’t justified.

“A lot of these cases are where tax computation is unfair. We don't mind waiting for the outcome of these cases rather settling under this scheme,” an official told Economic Times.

Taxmen have also approached PSU’s like Air India, Indian Oil, Mahanagar Gas, LIC Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, General Insurance Corp and Nuclear Power Corporation of India, with the amnesty scheme.

LIC, which has more than ₹50,000 crore worth tax dispute, has formed a special committee that will decide whether to avail the scheme or not. LIC officials say they aren’t in a hurry. SBI has disputed tax amounting to ₹30,000 crore, according to Economic Times.

100% target or no appraisals

According to CBDT circular, “the target for assessment of performance of the field officers in respect of ‘Vivaad se Vishwaas’ has been fixed at 100% of the cases with disputed tax demand which fulfil the eligibility condition under the scheme.”

In other words, if IT officials fail to resolve all the targets they might not be offered any appraisal. According to IT officials, the scheme may find small businessmen as its audience but PSU’s might not opt for it as they have a better chance to win the legal course, reported Economic Times.

Under the scheme, taxpayers who pay the undisputed tax before March 31,2020 will not have to pay interest and penalty.The government has set a target of garnering ₹2 lakh crore from the scheme.

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