Govt will have to forget direct tax of Rs 6.73 lakh cr; I-T dept puts it under difficult-to-recover category

The Union government is yet to recover direct tax arrears of over Rs 8 lakh crore. Worse still, the Income-Tax (I-T) department says 81% of it is not recoverable and has put it under the ‘difficult to recover’ category. This means there will be no recovery of Rs 6.73 lakh crore.

A paper presented during the recently held All India Conference of Chief Income Tax Commissioners stated that the department might recover 19% of Rs 8 lakh crore. But there’s a rider: even this is going to be a ‘tough task’.

So, who are the defaulters? Two-thirds of them owe just Rs 5,000 or below and only Rs 15,000 crore worth tax is pending with these defaulters. The real culprits are the top tax payers, who owe over Rs 6 lakh crore to the government.