Payment Date Extended for Vivad se Vishwas Scheme
·
Finance Secretary Urges I-T Department
to Reach Out to the Taxpayers to Improve Traffic
In order to provide further relief to the taxpayers
desirous of settling disputes under Vivad se Vishwas Scheme, the Government in
27 October 2020 further extended the date for making payment without additional
amount from 31st December 2020 to 31st March 2021. The last date for making
declaration under the Scheme has also been notified as 31st December 2020. As
per the notification issued today, the declaration under the Vivad se Vishwas Scheme shall be
required to be furnished latest by 31st December 2020, however, only in respect
of said declarations made by 31st December 2020 the payment without additional
amount can now be made up to 31st March 2021.
Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Dr. Ajay Bhushan
Pandey reviewed the progress made so far by the Income Tax Department on Vivad se Vishwas Scheme in a high
level meeting through video conferencing along with CBDT Chairman and Board
members with all Principal Chief Commissioners of Income Tax across the country
to expedite the Scheme which, he said, is highly beneficial to the taxpayers,
adding further that “We need to advance the Vivad se Vishwas Scheme with greater persuasion and perseverance and
must reach out to the taxpayers to facilitate all necessary handholding.”
In the meeting, suggestions and comments of the Field
Officers were also discussed regarding the action plan for successful
implementation of the Scheme in a time bound manner.
Finance Secretary Dr. Pandey said, “This is a scheme for
the benefit and convenience of the taxpayers as they would get instant disposal
of the dispute with no further cost of litigation besides monetary benefits in
the form of waiver of penalty, interest and prosecution. With this Scheme, on
the one hand, a taxpayer would be benefitted with stress-free time to put
her/his efforts for more meaningful daily life/routine or expanding business
activities while on the other, the government would be getting its due long pending revenue and
also, savings on the huge cost on resources that these disputes consume.”
In the meeting, CBDT Chairman Shri P.C. Mody mentioned the importance of cleaning up of demand for
facilitating and persuading the taxpayers for filing declarations under the
Scheme. He emphasized on Pr. Chief Commissioners of Income Tax to carry out all
possible actions such as disposing pending rectifications, giving pending
appeal effects, removing duplicate demands, etc. so as to arrive at a final
demand for each assessee so that whenever a taxpayer
files Form 1 or 2 under the Vivad se Vishwas Scheme, the Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax
concerned is in a position to issue Form 3 promptly.
It was also decided in the meeting to adopt a proactive
approach for implementation of the Scheme by approaching taxpayers directly,
guiding and facilitating them in filing of declarations and removing any
difficulties or problems faced by them in availing the Scheme. It was further
decided to have periodic review of the progress of the Scheme every fortnight.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 was
enacted on 17th March, 2020 with the objective to reduce pending income tax
litigation, generate timely revenue for the Government and to benefit taxpayers
by providing them peace of mind, certainty and savings on account of time and
resources that would otherwise be spent on the long-drawn and vexatious
litigation process. In order to provide more time to taxpayers to settle
disputes, earlier the date for filing declaration and making payment without
additional amount under Vivad se Vishwas
was extended from 31st March 2020 to 30th June, 2020. Later again, this date
was extended further to 31st December, 2020. Therefore, earlier both the
declaration and the payment without additional amount under the Vivad se Vishwas were required to
be made by 31st December, 2020.