Revenue dept cracks the whip to realise tax arrears

The department is also resorting to tough measures such as attachment of bank accounts,etc,to realise the arrear demand,the source said. In terms of collectible tax arrears for the current fiscal,the department is to realise a total of Rs 13,153 crore. This comprises demand not fallen due,demands locked up in cases before the settlement commission and stayed from courts,demand stayed by IT authorities and demand difficult to recover due to other reasons.

However,of the total Rs 2,13,648 crore,Rs 89,000 crore is from cases like that of Hassan Ali,where though there is a demand on the assessee but there are no assets available. Hassan Ali is a stud farm owner who tops the list of direct tax defaulters in the country. The outstanding demand against Ali,as on March 31,2009,is a whopping Rs 50,345 crore.

Another Rs 31,000 crore is from notified persons like Harshad Mehta,perpetrator of the stock market scam in early nineties.

Over the past six years,the tax arrear demand has not seen much fluctuation. While it was Rs 17,858 crore in March 2004,when the total tax collection target was Rs 1.05 lakh crore (17 per cent of the total target),in 2009-10,it is over 16 per cent of the revised estimate of Rs 3.87 lakh crore.