The government's efforts to expedite disposal of income tax-related disputes involving a sizeable volume of revenue are yet to produce any tangible results.
The rate of disposal of income tax-related pending cases remained poor during the last few years largely due to lack of willingness of some large corporate taxpayers to settle the issue, tax officials said.
The number of pending cases in the Taxes Appellate Tribunal increased to 1,895 in 2013-14 fiscal, compared to 1,088 in FY 2012-13 and 1,112 in FY 2011-12.
The number of cases disposed of by the Taxes Appellate Tribunal was 5,563 in FY 2009-10. That number came down to 4,493 in FY 2013-14.
However, the number of cases disposed of last year was slightly higher than those of the previous year (2012-13).
The number of pending cases in the tribunal recorded an increase in the first half of the current FY largely because of the complex nature of cases filed by a number of large taxpayers, tribunal officials said.
The government has introduced Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and the Supreme Court (SC) increased the number of division benches to speed up the rate of disposal of pending cases.
President of the Taxes Appellate Tribunal Md Sirajul Karim said the rate of disposal of tax-related cases showed a 30 per cent increase in the first half of the current FY compared to that of the corresponding period last year.
"All the pending cases cannot be expedited as the tribunal hears from both taxpayers and taxmen to ensure justice," he said.
In July-December period of the current FY, some 2,231 cases were lodged in the tribunal as against 2,384 in the corresponding period of last year.
The number of pending cases came down to 1,408 in December last after the tribunal geared up its efforts to increase rates of disposal, Mr Karim said.
The tribunal has refurbished its infrastructure, updated websites, launched archives of some 7,500 files from FY 1973 to FY 1987, he said.
Until December 14, some 2,700 cases, involving a sum of about Tk 79 billion remained stuck up in different courts and tribunals, according to available data of the income tax wing.
On amount involved with the pending taxes, the tribunal president said the objective of the tribunal is not to maximise revenue collection but to ensure justice to taxpayers.
There are seven divisional benches under the President of Tribunal in Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna. The Taxes Appellate Tribunal is an entity under the Internal Resources Division (IRD) of the Ministry of Finance.
Officials said pending cases involving large amounts of revenue are mostly from banks and cell phone operators.
Disputes arise with banks on provisioning issues, Zakat Fund, head office expenses etc, tax officials said.
Cell phone companies file cases challenging imposition of taxes on subsidies of SIM (subscriber identification module) they sell to mobile phone subscribers at a reduced rate.
A senior tax official said some cases remained pending as taxpayers don't want to dispose those of.
The NBR introduced ADR in July, 1, 2012 to speed up disposal of cases through out-of-the court settlement.
Some 350 cases came under ADR involving tax revenue worth Tk 7.50 billion. Of the cases, the NBR settled 160 cases realising Tk 1.50 billion income taxes for the public exchequer.
However, taxpayers are yet to find ADR process attractive to apply for the out-of-the court settlement of the disputes.
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