The Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT ) has directed to communicate that all the CsIT(A) in respective regions be directed that all such pending appeals for more than 5 years as on 1st April, 2019 must be disposed of without fail by 31st March, 2020.
As per data provided by ITBA, it is noticed that out of opening balance of 31325 of appeals pending for 5 years and more, only 7597 appeals have been disposed of till 30.11.2019.
The CBDT also said that, If necessary, redistribution of appeals within the region may also be done to ensure disposal by the above date.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT ) has further enhanced Monetary limits for filing of appeals by the Income Tax Department.
There is a substantial pendency of appeals of the Income Tax Department before various appellate fora. The CBDT is aware of the importance of litigation management and has been continuously working towards achieving the same.
To effectively reduce taxpayer grievances/litigation and help the Department focus on litigation involving complex legal issues and high tax effect, the monetary limits for filing of appeals by the Department were last revised on 11th July,2018 vide CBDT Circular No.3 of 2018. As a step towards further management of litigation by the Government, the monetary limits for filing Departmental appeals before various appellate fora including ITAT, High Court & Supreme Court have been revised.
In line with the above-mentioned hike of Monetary limit, the Income Tax Department of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Ahmedabad and many other states has withdrawn appeals from different High Courts and Income Tax Appellate Tribunals (ITAT).
